Breast Cancer & Menopause FAQs
Breast Cancer Survivorship Tips
Bone Health
Make sure you know about your bone health and ask if you are a candidate for a bone density test. Speak with your team about the effects of your medications on bone health and ask if you are at risk for osteoporosis. It is very important to make sure you are eating a nutritious diet with plenty of calcium in your food, and consider taking a Vitamin D supplement.
Cardiovascular Health
Most breast cancer survivors will survive their disease and it is important to remember that heart disease, not breast cancer, is the leading killer of women. Breast cancer survivors who experience premature menopause for any reason are at a further increased risk of heart diseases. Speak to your health care team about your personal cardiovascular risk and know your numbers! This means your cholesterol levels and other lipids, fasting glucose, blood pressure, BMI, and ask about other tests like EKG, Coronary Artery Calcium Score, and more. You can also do your own risk asessment here. Remember that women have gender specific cardiac risk factors, and breast cancer treatments can add to the risk, so speak to your health care team.
Menopause, Weight and Nutrition
Menopause is a challenging time for most women when it comes to managing their weight. The premature loss of estrogen and the impact of cancer treatments and stress can make it much worse. For an excellent review of how women can nourish their body, help support it metabolically in menopause, watch this webinar Alloy did with Dr. Mary Claire Haver from The Galveston Diet.
Sexual Health
Menopause and the changes in hormones, and the resulting symptoms can really impact a woman’s sexual function. Cancer treatments and premature or surgical menopause can add to the problem. Learn more above about how vaginal estrogen or O-mazing can help you. Breast cancer survivors deserve to have their sexual health concerns taken seriously. Low desire, arousal and orgasm problems, pelvic pain, sexual pain, clitoral adhesions, and genitourinary changes all impact cancer survivors more and there are solutions to help you. Also see excellent resources at the patient education site of ISSWSH and we also recommend checking out the Rosy App which has excellent breast cancer survivorship sexual health resources.
Menopause Health
Menopause symptoms are not just bothersome, they can greatly impact your quality of life, and are associated with significant preventative health and chronic disease concerns. All women should have access to solutions to treat your menopause symptoms. Breast cancer survivors should speak to their healthcare team about all the available data on the benefits versus risks of both hormonal and non-hormonal treatment options.
Estrogen Matters: Why Taking Hormones in Menopause Can Improve Women's Well-Being and Lengthen Their Lives -- Without Raising the Risk of Breast Cancer
Read Dr. Avrum Bluming's compelling defense of hormone replacement therapy, exposing the faulty science behind its fall from prominence and empowering women to make informed decisions about their health. For years, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was hailed as a miracle. Study after study showed that HRT, if initiated at the onset of menopause, could ease symptoms ranging from hot flashes to memory loss; reduce the risk of heart disease, Alzheimer's, osteoporosis, and some cancers; and even extend a woman's overall life expectancy. But when a large study by the Women's Health Initiative announced results showing an uptick in breast cancer among women taking HRT, the winds shifted abruptly, and HRT, officially deemed a carcinogen, was abandoned.
