This Study Changed Women’s Health Overnight

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]In 2002, a study called the Women's Health Initiative ran on every news outlet with one headline: Hormone therapy causes increased risk of breast cancer. Women stopped taking it literally overnight. I talked to doctors who were practicing at the time that said usage dropped from like 40% to 4%, some crazy numbers. Women were calling their offices saying I'm flushing this down the toilet. What did you give me? I can't believe it. And over 20 years, generation after generation went without treatment that could have helped them because of a study that was fundamentally misrepresented. The average age of the women in that study, 63 years old, not perimenopausal women who are in their 40s and 50s.

[00:00:40]And what never made the headlines is the fact that women in that same study who took estrogen only actually had a 23% decrease in breast cancer incidence.