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AIRPORT VOICE, OCTOBER 2021 21
Menopause &
hormones
Check unusual symptoms
Menopause occurs when a woman’s
reproductive cycle is over and
she can no longer produce offspring.
For many women, menopause occurs
around age 50.
While menopause itself is not a
risk for breast or other cancers, it’s
important to know that some symptom
treatments and other factors
can increase the risk for cancer
among menopausal women.
The North American Menopause
Society says that a woman
going through perimenopause and
menopause may experience various
symptoms, which can range
from hair loss to food cravings to hot
flashes to vaginal dryness. The National
Institutes of Health indicates
some women undergo combined
hormone therapy, also called hormone
replacement therapy to help
relieve menopausal symptoms such
as hot flashes and osteoporosis.
This therapy replaces estrogen and
progestin, which diminish in a woman’s
body after menopause sets in.
However, NIH’s Women’s Health Initiative
Study has found that women
undergoing this therapy have a
higher risk of breast cancer, among
other conditions.
WebMD says evidence suggests
that the longer a woman is exposed
to female hormones, whether it’s
those made by the body, taken as
a drug, or delivered by a patch, the
more likely she is to develop breast
cancer. That means that hormone
replacement therapy can increase
breast cancer risk and also indicates
that the longer a woman remains
fertile the greater her risk for certain
cancers. Women who began menstruating
before age 12 or entered
menopause after age 55 will have
had many ovulations. This increases
the risk of uterine, breast, and ovarian
cancers, states the American
Society of Clinical Oncology. It also
may impact a woman’s chances of
developing endometrial cancer.
Gaining weight after menopause
can also increase a woman’s risk of
breast cancer, states the MD Anderson
Cancer Center. Therefore, maintaining
a healthy weight or even losing
a little weight can be beneficial.
Metastatic Cancer
Rising survival rates
Cancer survival rates are on the rise,
and that rise can be credited to a host
of factors. Advancements in cancer research
and treatment have played a big
role in rising survival rates, as have the
efforts of various organizations to promote
cancer prevention and raise awareness
about the disease.
The World Health Organization notes
that between 30 and 50 percent of cancers
can currently be prevented by avoiding
certain risk factors and implementing
evidence-based prevention strategies.
However, people can be vulnerable to
cancer if they do not pay attention to their
bodies or make an effort to protect themselves
against certain risk factors for
cancer. In such instances, cancer may already
have spread to other parts of their
bodies, or metastasized, before they are
even diagnosed, greatly reducing their
likelihood of surviving the disease.
Cancer that spreads to distant parts
of the body is known as metastatic cancer
and is often referred to as “stage IV
cancer.” According to the National Cancer
Institute, when observed under a microscope,
metastatic cancer cells feature
traits like that of the primary cancer and
do not mimic the cells in the part of the
body where the cancer is found. That is
how doctors can tell that the cancer is
metastatic cancer and has spread from
another part of the body.
When doctors diagnose metastatic
cancer, they will refer to it with the same
name as the primary cancer regardless
of where the metastatic cancer was discovered.
For example, the Institute notes
that breast cancer that has spread to the
lungs will not be referred to as lung cancer,
but metastatic breast cancer. In addition,
when treating the disease in this
example, doctors will treat the cancer as
stage IV breast cancer, not as lung cancer.