Breast cancer and climacteric complaints: weighing up risks of hormone therapy against quality of life.

Women with severe menopausal symptoms can, at their request, be treated effectively with hormone therapy. Good information about the advantages and disadvantages of hormone therapy should precede this decision. For women with breast cancer or an inherited increased risk of breast cancer and severe, often therapy-related climacteric symptoms, a high degree of reticence is appropriate in relation to hormone therapy. If the quality of life is seriously affected in these often-young women with these iatrogenic climacteric complaints, then careful consideration must be given to the various treatment modalities.