A report, in the Journal of the American Medical Association, by the Women's Health Initiative reveals that hormone medication Prempro increases postmenopausal women’s exposure to breast cancer.

In the USA, 15% to 20% of women after their menopause take the drug Prempro that contains hormones estrogen and progestin in order to relieve menopausal suffering. Research detects that these women are not only more likely to get breast cancer disease but also to die from it.

Another research suggests that the medication also leads to increase of death from lung cancer, although it does not lead to a higher exposure for its users.

In order to assess the long-term consequences, already in 2002, 16,000 women over the age of 50 but below 79 started taking either Prempro or a placebo. After 5½ years the results demonstrate, that the hormone drug Prempro increased the women’s risk of serious disease like breast cancer or heart conditions.

Another study, aimed to detect if Prempro increases breast cancer deaths, demonstrates that merely 1.3 out 10,000 women who have regularly taken the hormones died.

The producer of Prempro, Pfizer, responds to the findings: “The increased risk of breast cancer compared to placebo has been included in Prempro's label since its introduction in 1995. This analysis does not alter that risk, nor does it dispute hormone therapy's effectiveness”.