Hormone Replacement Therapy
New Considerations

 

	You may have heard from the media about the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), a study of healthy women ages 50-79 who used hormone replacement therapy (HRT). The women in one part of the study took the hormone PremproTM (a combination pill of the hormones estrogen and progestin) or no hormones at all. This study was stopped after five years because researchers found that women taking the hormone combination had a small increase in heart attacks, strokes, blood clots, and breast cancer. Although women taking the hormones had fewer hip fractures and colon cancers, researchers stopped the study because they felt that the hormone therapy was doing more harm than good. To help you understand your risks if you are taking combination hormones, you can equate your increased health risks with the risks of women who take one alcohol drink per day or women who have not had children. Even though each woman’s risk is relatively small, the associated health problems can effect several thousand women over time because over 6 million women in the U.S. are on combination hormones. For most women, the decision to stop or continue taking these hormones is not urgent and should be made thoughtfully with their physician or medical professional. Read the article, “What Should I Do Now About My Hormone Replacement Therapy ?” (in Adobe Acrobat Reader format) for more complete information. Based on the results of the WHI and other studies, Beaver Medical Group offers the following recommendations: • If you are taking the combination pill PremproTM or Premarin® 0.625mg and Provera® 2.5mg for the prevention of heart disease only, then you should stop therapy. You can safely stop your hormones all at once. You may experience some menopausal symptoms like hot flashes, mild spotting, or bleeding, but these should decrease over time. At your next regular health visit, you should discuss with your physician or medical professional other ways to prevent heart disease. • If you are taking these hormones to prevent symptoms of menopause such as hot flashes, or to prevent other diseases such as osteoporosis, then you should discuss with your physician or medical professional at your next health care visit whether to stay on the hormones, or consider other options. If you are concerned about the risks of continuing the hormones and wish to stop, then you can safely do so. Experts say using HRT for less than four years is safe for most women. Beaver Medical Group is committed to practicing medicine that is based on the highest-quality research. That is why we want to keep you informed of new developments and if necessary, make changes in your health care based on this information; we hope you find this information helpful.
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