Women who have had a hysterectomy and who use oestrogen-only hormone replacement therapy appear less likely to develop breast cancer in the long term than women who have never used HRT, new findings published by the Lancet today, Wednesday 7 March 2012, indicate.

Researchers followed postmenopausal women for nearly 12 years and found a 23% reduction in the incidence of invasive breast cancer in those who had used conjugated equine oestrogen therapy for an average 5.9 years, compared with women on placebo.

Those on oestrogen therapy who did develop breast cancer were also much less likely to die from the cancer than women who developed breast cancer in the placebo group.

Women who smoke have a higher risk of early natural menopause, a review of eleven studies involving about 50,000 women has found.

The meta-analysis, published in the February edition of Menopause journal, provides more evidence to suggest that smoking is a significant independent risk factor for early menopause.

Natural menopause usually occurs about age 50. One group of studies in the meta-analysis found smoking increased the risk of menopause occurring before this age by about 43 per cent. Another group of studies found smoking brought forward menopause by about one year.

Early natural menopause is associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases, genital tract cancers and osteoporosis.