How is hormone therapy given?
Three ways: as pills you swallow, as shots or implants, or through surgery that removes the organs making the hormone. Which one you get depends on your cancer, not on your preference alone.
Hormone therapy is also called hormonal therapy, hormone treatment, or endocrine therapy. It is used mainly for prostate and breast cancers that need hormones to grow.
Pills taken at home
Most of the newer drugs are pills. For breast cancer, tamoxifen and toremifene block the estrogen receptor. A second group, the aromatase inhibitors, block an enzyme the body uses to make estrogen. These are anastrozole, letrozole, and exemestane. About 80% of people with breast cancer have hormone receptor positive tumors, and those are the ones that respond.
For prostate cancer, the androgen receptor blockers bicalutamide, enzalutamide, apalutamide, and darolutamide are all pills. So is relugolix, which shuts down the signal from the pituitary gland. So is abiraterone, which blocks an enzyme called CYP17 that the body needs to make testosterone.
Pills are convenient, but they only work if you take them. Missed doses can undercut the treatment, so tell your team if side effects are making you skip them.
Shots and implants
The National Cancer Institute describes a shot into a muscle in your arm, thigh, or hip. It can also go just under the skin, in the fatty part of your arm, leg, or belly. Some drugs are implanted under the skin instead.
Leuprolide, goserelin, and triptorelin are given this way for prostate cancer. Goserelin and leuprolide are also used to shut down the ovaries in breast cancer. Degarelix is another injected option.
There is one wrinkle worth knowing. The first dose of an LHRH agonist causes a brief rise in testosterone, called a testosterone flare, before levels drop. That flare can worsen bone pain or press on the spinal cord. Doctors often give an androgen receptor blocker pill for a few weeks at the start to prevent it. Get emergency care the same day for new back pain with leg weakness, numbness, or loss of bladder or bowel control, because spinal cord compression is treated in hours, not days.
Surgery, and why it is permanent
Surgery removes the organ that makes the hormone. In men that means the testicles. The operation is called orchiectomy, and it lowers blood testosterone by 90% to 95%. In women it means the ovaries, in an operation called oophorectomy. Radiation to the ovaries has the same effect.
This is the key difference from drugs. Surgical removal cannot be undone. Drug-based suppression is reversible, and hormone production usually restarts after treatment stops. If fertility or future hormone levels matter to you, raise that before surgery is scheduled.
Where and how often
Where you go depends on which drug you get. You may take hormone therapy at home, or receive it in a doctor's office, clinic, or hospital. Injections may be monthly or every few months, and pills are usually daily.
Length varies widely, from a few weeks alongside radiation to several years after surgery. NCI notes that the risk of side effects rises the longer you stay on hormone therapy. That is why the plan gets revisited rather than set once. Our overview of hormone therapy covers side effects, and the guide to hormone therapy for prostate cancer explains the drug groups in detail.
Sources
Want the full picture? Read our complete explanation: What Is Hormone Therapy for Cancer?
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