Post WHI thoughts

1. Prempro is probably bad, shouldn't be used, probably the progestin contributes to breast cancer risk.

2. Premarin has not been shown to increase the risk of breast cancer, may be protective.

3. HRT probably causes strokes, venous thrombosis, and heart attacks.

4. HRT definitely contributes to breast density, which makes mammograms harder to interpret. The odds of a false negative (missing a breast cancer that's there) is 1.6. But as this abstract from 1998 points out, this may not be leading to increased breast cancer disease burden or death.

The problem is, folks, mammography ain't the greatest tool in the world for reducing the burden of breast cancer upon humanity. It's hard to prove a link between mammography and reduced death from breast cancer.