clipped from www.msnbc.msn.com Breast cancer dropped along with hormone pills New research also links menopause hormones to ovarian cancer risk ATLANTA - New government numbers give some of the strongest evidence yet that menopause hormones can raise the risk of breast cancer. Rates of the disease leveled off in 2004 after plunging in 2003, the year after millions of women stopped taking hormones because a big study tied them to higher heart, stroke and breast cancer risks.