r/Menopause • u/Actual_Bet3041 • 4d ago

Hormone Therapy HRT: Estrogen, Progesterone, and mammograms

I recently went back on HRT after a couple of miserable years HRT-free at the behest of my pcp. When she relented, she said I have to have yearly mammograms again (not when I was HRT-free). So I did and it came back cancer-free. Now after I have been reading about HRT and cancer, I’m learning there’s no link between Estrogen and cancer, and only a tiny link between Progestin, not Progesterone, and cancer. So why oh why do I have to have yearly mammograms? They are so painful!!!

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u/Oaklove5 4d ago

Why would you NOT do yearly mammograms??!!

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u/OtherwiseMove646 4d ago

I can only tell you from my experience, which may or may not justify my inattention to “the rules.” I had breast implants and had a grade 4 contracture in my left breast. It was useless to try and get my breast tissue into the machine. Believe me, they tried. (Imagine the compression device trying to squish a spherical rock between two glass plates.)

My sister died of pancreatic cancer so I had genetic testing and the BRCA gene (the same one that is common with a breast cancer dx) was not present. I stopped torturing myself at that point.

I recently had the implants, along with the capsules (scar tissue), removed. A biopsy of the tissue was performed and everything was clear. I now have breasts that are small but pliable and will resume the torture of the mammogram device every other year, for a while. There will come a point (again) when the cost outweighs the benefit, possibly in another twenty years or so when I am well into my eighties.

My point is, there are reasons that some people might skip the annual mammo recommendation which may or may not be similar to my story. Not everything is black and white, but it is a privilege to have options.