Can HRT affect memory after diagnosis?
Patricia Ganz, M.D.: As far as I am aware there is no impact of prior hormonal replacement therapy on the post-treatment complaints. However, it is now known from the Women’s Health Initiative hormone therapy trials that women who were randomly assigned to estrogen and progesterone or estrogen alone had a significant decline in memory functions compared to women who were given a placebo. It used to be thought that hormone replacement was good in terms of preventing Alzheimer’s or memory loss, but that is not the case. So getting off hormones as a result of breast cancer may be beneficial.
