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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English

ESTROGEN MATTERS

Carol Tavrus Avrum Bluming

Why Taking Hormones in Menopause Improves Women's Well-Being, Lenghtens Their Lives - and Doesn't Raise the Risk of Breast Cancer

Estrogen Matters is a short, punchy and lively manifesto presenting a compelling defense of Hormone Replacement Therapy, exposing the faulty science behind the Women's Health Initiate study which made headlines and caused a sea change in the use of HRT in treating women. The authors tell a fascinating science story and also empower readers 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 estrogen replacement, the winds shifted abruptly, and HRT, officially deemed a carcinogen, was abandoned.

As it turns out, however, that study was fatally flawed. Now, fifteen years after HRT was left for dead, Dr. Bluming, a medical oncologist, and Dr. Tavris, a social psychologist, track its strange history and present a compelling case for its resurrection. They investigate what led the publicand much of the medical establishmentto accept the Women's Health Initiative's often exaggerated claims, while also providing a fuller picture of the science that supports HRT. They explore broad questions about how medical research is brought from bench to bedside, giving readers the information they need to decide if hormone replacement therapy is right for them.

A sobering and revelatory read, Estrogen Matters sets the record straight on this beneficial treatment, and provides an empowering path to wellness for women everywhere.

Avrum Bluming, MD, is a hematologist and medical oncologist, and a Master of the American College of Physicians, an award bestowed on fewer than 500 of the 100,000 board-certified internists in the United States. He is Emeritus Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Southern California and a former senior investigator for the National Cancer Institute.

Carol Tavris, PhD, is a social psychologist who has written widely about psychological science. Her trade books include Anger; The Mismeasure of Woman; and, with Elliot Aronson, Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me). She has won numerous awards for her science writing and contributions to skepticism and gender equity.
Available products
Book

Published 2018-09-01 by Spark /Little Brown

Book

Published 2024-09-01 by Little, Brown Spark

Comments

This book is long overdue. Having spent over two decades advancing women's health, I was appalled by the Women's Health Initiative's efforts to sensationalize and distort their own findings to promote an anti-hormone-therapy agenda. Personally I have been taking HRT for over 25 years and have no intention of stopping. I hopeEstrogen Mattersdraws enough attention to counter the fears and misinformation about HRT that so many women, and their physicians, still hold.

Given breast cancer's substantial morbidity, mortality, emotional toll and the vast consequences of its treatment, the frontal salvo on the conventional wisdom of estrogen use by Avrum Bluming and Carol Tavris is refreshing and welcome. The book will stir a lively debate about the merits of decades of existing clinical research on estrogens and help reframe the way clinicians and patients view the tradeoff between the benefits and risks of hormone therapy.

Well written, insightful, and hard hitting,Estrogen Matterssuccessfully rebuts the billion-dollar, government-led study known as the Women's Health Initiative, which claimed that hormones for post-menopausal women are harmful. That study was wrong. It turns out estrogensdomatter for women's health.

This book is long overdue, and I salute the authors for their courage and effort (and their clear, witty writing). I believe it is an ethical imperative for all clinicians who treat women in menopause or women with breast cancer to alert their patients to this book. It will not only improve women's quality of life, but also, on balance of probabilities, extend women's lives by delaying death from all other causes.

UK: Piatkus

Once considered a veritable fountain of youth, estrogen replacement got a bad rap with the Women's Health Initiative study. This book is an exhaustively researched and meticulously reasoned vindication of hormone replacement therapy. Estrogen matters: it's the most effective treatment for hot flashes and other symptoms of menopause, and when started early and used continuously, it has important health benefits and can actually prevent some of the adverse events it was thought to cause. Bluming and Tavris tell estrogen's story in a way that is both accessible to the general public and appropriate for professionals. What's more, they provide valuable insights into understanding research and how even the best randomized controlled studies can lead to unjustified public fears and injudicious clinical recommendations. Very enlightening!

This is such an important book, I want to do all I can to encourage every woman to read it. Groundbreaking and carefully researched,Estrogen Mattersprovides essential informationabout the many benefits of estrogen at menopause and even after a diagnosis of breast cancer. It reveals the misinterpretation of study results that led women (and their doctors) to have unwarranted concerns about estrogen use. The thoughtful information presented here will help women feel more comfortable taking estrogen, leading to healthier, longer lives for many.

How could one flawed scientific conclusion become a persuasive juggernaut that changed the practice of women's health worldwide?In their fascinating account, Bluming and Tavris challenge that conclusion and unpack the reasons for its remarkable impact.