text_1: New recommendations for managing menopausal symptoms in breast cancer survivors
text_2: This news release lists several non-pharmalogical steps for relieving menopausal symptoms of women who have been treated for breast cancer. The main takeaway is that most women who have been treated for breast cancer shouldn’t receive hormone therapy, but instead focus on lifestyle changes although some emerging pharmacologic approaches were listed as well. It’s not clear from either the news release or the published study how researchers drew their conclusions. The release states that clinical trials, observational studies, guidelines, and expert opinion were analyzed, but no study data is provided to put the findings in perspective. Women who are dealing with premature menopause as a result of breast cancer treatment would benefit from a better understanding of risks and benefits of treatments. The news release states that there are 9.3 million breast cancer survivors worldwide but doesn’t note, as the study does, that 43 percent of these are older than 65 at diagnosis and thus would not have menopausal symptoms due to chemotherapy for their breast cancer. The study also notes that 25 percent of those diagnosed are below age 50 and are thus more likely to be pre-menopausal at diagnosis. By not including those breakdowns the news release makes chemotherapy-induced menopause seem more prevalent than it is.