Welcome to Wellness and Mass. I'm Dr. Nicole Sapphire and today's topic while it hits close to home.

Today we're going to dive into one of the most controversial and misunderstood topics in medicine,

hormone replacement therapy or HRT. As a woman, if you've been told that it's dangerous or unnecessary,

you're not alone. We all have, but it's time to set the record straight because the

science has evolved and the stakes for women's health are too high to ignore. And if you're a man

listening to this podcast, let me tell you, while you are not going to go through perimenopause

or menopause, I guarantee someone in your orbit is going to because all women do. So you might

learn a thing or two by listening here. So I would

tune in because this will benefit you as well. The reality is in medical school, I was actually

taught that it was bad, but I'm going to age myself just a little bit here. After nearly 20 years

since I have graduated from medical school, I've learned that on my own, maybe to treat her to

not treat perimenopause, menopausal symptoms, it's not as black and white as maybe we once thought.

And one of the most common reasons that women who are undergoing breast cancer treatment,

you know, oftentimes they have surgery, radiation, sometimes chemotherapy, when that is all

said and done, if they have

a hormone sensitive cancer, oftentimes they will be offered an oral treatment to decrease their

risk of that cancer coming back. Well, that medication, the main side effect, it essentially

thrust them into menopause. And women sometimes say the symptoms are far too much. They can't deal with it and they're going to

stop taking the medication. Now, as a young doctor, I was shocked that women would make this choice.

They know the risk of their cancer coming back is slightly increased if they don't take that medication.

But for them, what is the life worth living if they are unhappy, if they don't

feel well? The older I have gotten, the more I have begun to understand that it's not really all

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