@lbroomayo1 Lynn, I can share some experience with hormone replacement and what I have learned from my functional medicine doctors. What is prescribed for me is bio-identical hormone replacement that is custom made for me by a compounding pharmacy. My doctors have told me that bio-identical replacement of estrogen and progesterone reduce risks of colon cancer and also help maintain bone strength. The problems that happen that increase risks of cancer can be due to it not being a bio-identical match or that a person doesn't detox well, or hormones are not balanced. There are normal biochemical pathways the body uses to detox the end products of using estrogen and some people do it better than others. If the end products are not detoxed and removed, this can cause problems. The estrogen must also be balanced against progesterone for its protective effect because too much estrogen dominance causes problems. You don't need to have cycles if the hormone levels are set correctly. Functional medicine doctors and environmental medicine doctors try to achieve balance in the body so all the systems are working correctly and optimized for the best health. There are tests to measure if a patient is detoxing the hormone byproducts, and you can add supplements to help assist. My doctor recommended Orthomolecular Methyl CpG which is a supplement for heart health of several B vitamins, and this helps feed detox pathways. Functional medicine doctors think "outside the box" as opposed to conventional doctors who are prescribing manufactured pills that approximate human hormones and they read the studies of the effects of those prescriptions. That is why you are seeing their reactions of apprehension. I don't have the biochemical knowledge to fully understand this process, but a functional medicine specialist should. The field of environmental medicine was started by a practice in Dallas and they have research volumes for doctors that explain everything.

You can find information at https://www.aaemonline.org/ On the upper right corner of the website is a blue button where you can search for a provider. This link is a provider in Dallas, TX where a lot of the pioneering work was done in this field. https://www.ehcd.com/

I am glad to see that you are advocating for yourself, but please do check in with a specialist who understands the biochemistry of natural hormones. I am glad that you are working to maintain your health and there are many choices involved with that including efforts to reduce inflammation. It is something that needs to be properly tweaked to be balanced and optimized and keep it away from the dangers of approximation. Another thing you could consider is to have a genetic test to determine if your risk of cancer is higher than average. That might help in your optimization of your health. I know there are specific tests for a breast cancer gene, but there are also other tests that can predict cancer risks. Those might be specifc for specific cancers, but that is something you could ask your provider about.