Hormone therapy getting second look for taming menopause symptoms

UPPER DUBLIN, Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- For years, hormone therapy was off the table for easing the symptoms of menopause.

But lately, it's getting a second look.

For Stephanie Rosenfeld, menopause came early and hit hard after cancer treatment.

"It was the hot flashes. It was the mood swings. It was the inability to focus," Stephanie recalls.

She says the brain fog was especially difficult, affecting both work and family life.

"You kept walking away from things, and things would take you twice as long," she adds.

After first being told to just deal with the symptoms, friends urged her to search for other solutions.

She found them with Temple Health gynecologist Dr. Debra Somers.

Dr. Somers says the 2002 Women's Health Initiative study, which branded hormone replacement therapy as risky, was misleading and distorted, off by a factor of 10,000.

She says it exaggerated the breast cancer risk.

"They're quoting a 30% increased risk of breast cancer, when in actuality, the increased risk of breast cancer was .08 %," she notes.

The WHI study also reported higher rates of heart attacks and stroke.

However, 70 percent of the participants were over age 60 - a decade past menopause.

"So what happened is they already had plaque buildup," Dr. Somers explains, meaning many were already developing heart disease.

But a 2012 analysis said that starting hormone replacement within 10 years of menopause actually cut heart disease 48 percent, and the chance of death by 30 percent.

Dr. Somers says hormone therapy has many forms and types.

"There's the pills. There's a patch. There are pellets," she says.

She favors conjugated estrogen products, not the estradiol ones.

And there's no time limit on them.

"I have women in their 80s and 90s on their hormones," Dr. Somers says proudly.

Stephanie says her hot flashes are gone without risking a new cancer.

"The energy level is back. I'm back to being at the gym 4 or 5 days a week. I'm back to keeping up with my teenage daughters," she says.

Stephanie wishes she'd pushed for answers earlier, and urges other women to advocate for themselves.

Dr. Somers urges women to find a health care provider who listens to you.

"You can't listen to everything that's out there, you have to do what's best for you," she advises.