Increased breast cancer risk?

[dianagramr]

As a 46XY female, I've been on replacement estrogen/progesterone for my entire adult life. I am currently taking 1.25mg Premarin and 100mg Prometrium daily, and my hormone levels have been fine.

My family, at least on my mother's side, has a history of breast cancer.

Given these two facts, am I MORE likely to be at risk for breast cancer?

Thanks in advance for your input ...

[miriam]

Have you ever considered to switch from Premarin to generic Estradiol. Works as good (if not better), it isn’t made of horse-p and it is much cheaper. And to protect your liver you might consider to switch to patches or a gel.

Why do you use Prometrium? Do you have a womb? Only then progesterone is important. Every (or almost every) endocrinologist will say that progesterone has no use for intersexed xy-women without a womb. Yet every male-to-female transsexual I’ve ever met uses Prometrium (or in Europe Progestan). Every now and then in AIS peer support groups the question comes up whether we would benefit from progesterone or not. Some people who use(d) it told me that it had a great effect on their boobs… I don’t know…

The bad news is that breast cancer seems to be related to progesterone-like medication in ‘the Pill’. The good news is that probably the progestines (synthetic progesterone-like) are responsible for the higher rate of breast cancer in women who use the pill and NOT the progesterone that is used in Prometrium and Progestan.

But if you don’t need progesterone it would be a rather good idea to ask your endocrinologist or gynaecologist if you can stop with the Prometrium.

It is not a really good idea to stop with the estradiol because you need that to keep your bones healthy. Osteoporosis is a serious risk for women with XY-chromosomes. Don’t believe people who say that you can stop when you are 50 or 60 years old. Those people refer to menopausal women, but unlike us menopausal women still make SOME estrogens. And if you ever meet someone who “never used HRT and still has no osteoporosis” you should know that there are also people who smoke 50 cigarettes per day, drink a gallon of booze every day and who are 90 years old. Miracles do happen…

Regarding to the familiar history of breast cancer I can only say that you have to ask your doctor (and maybe the doctors of your mother and/or her relatives) about this.

Groeten, Miriam

PS. And as always... I'm not a medical professional so don’t take my word for it… ask your doctor!

[dianagramr]

Thanks for all the background Miriam!

I DO have a small uterus, though my cycles do NOT include bleeding (just weight gain and other associated PMS-type symptoms).

I was on Premarin and Provera for something like 15 years, and then my doctors suggested I switch off Provera for Prometrium.

And so it goes ...