Menopause Hormone Replacement Therapy

Menopause hormone replacement therapy has been a controversial topic for many years. To date, there is no conclusive evidence that using this therapy will improve a woman’s ability to remain healthy throughout her senior years. Today the terminology has also changed to reflect the fact that physicians no longer believe that replacing hormones is necessarily a good thing. The terminology has changed to Hormone Therapy (HT).

More and more physicians and researchers have stopped looking for ways of improving on the way that the human body works and instead are searching for methods of supporting the body to perform the functions that it can all on its own.

Until the year 2002 HT was routinely used to treat the symptoms of menopause and potentially protect the long term health of woman. At that time a large clinical trial published some of the health risks that were associated with using these drugs and physicians no longer used it as a mainstay of treatment.

The theory behind HT is that is helps to replace the hormone levels that the woman is slowly losing over time. This replacement was originally intended to decrease the uncomfortable symptoms of menopause and decrease the risk of osteoporosis, breast cancer, stroke and heart attack.

At this point, in 2002, the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) unearthed the information that HT actually posed more of a risk to women’s health in the long term than benefits. As time went on researchers discovered more and more health hazards that were attributed to the hormone therapy.

When women are facing menopause and are considering hormone therapy learn more about the benefits and risks before beginning. In early hormone therapy doctors prescribed only estrogen and then as more research was uncovered they began prescribing a combination of estrogen and progesterone.

Estrogen remains the most effective treatment for relieving menopausal hot flashes and night sweats. It also relieves vaginal dryness and maintains the vaginal wall strength preventing dropped bladders.

Researchers have found that there are long-term benefits to hormone therapy which include the prevention of bone loss leading to osteoporosis, decrease the risk to colorectal cancer, and there is some data to suggest that there is also a decrease risk of heart disease.

When considering the benefits women must also consider the risks that were uncovered in the Women’s Health Initiative in 2002. They found that women who were taking the combination estrogen-progestin had an increased risk of developing serious conditions such as heart disease, breast cancer, stroke and blood clots.

Based on actual numbers the increased risk is small but the overall risk to women who are menopausal is a substantial health concern. Researchers also found that women taking the combination pill also had an increased risk of abnormal mammogram.

This study also found that women taking the single pill with estrogen, but no progestin, had no increased risk of breast cancer or heart disease. But they did find that these women did experience more strokes and blood clots than those who didn’t take any hormone therapy.

Despite the risks estrogen remains the industry standard for treating the symptoms that women experience when they are perimenopausal or menopausal. Women who have had breast cancer, heart disease or a history of blood clots or stroke should not take HT to relieve menopause symptoms.

If you do decide to take menopause hormone replacement therapy there are a few things that can be done to reduce the added risks. Women should minimize the amount of medication that they are taking, find the best delivery method that is best for you and time the medication therapy so you are taking the hormones less than 60 years of age.

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