By IANS,
Sydney : One of the longest and largest trials of hormone replacement therapy has found it helps post-menopausal women significantly improve quality of life.
The study involved 2,130 post-menopausal women in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. It evaluated the impact of combined oestrogen and progestogen hormone therapy (HRT) on their quality of life.
The average age of women in this study was 13 years after menopause and most participants did not have menopausal symptoms.
The results show that hot flushes, night sweats, sleeplessness and joint pains were less common in women on HRT in this age group. Sexuality was also improved.
“Overall, quality of life measures improved. Even when women did not have hot flushes and were well past menopause, there was a small but measurable improvement in quality of life and a noted improvement in sleep, sexuality and joint pains. “HRT users also had more breast tenderness and discharge compared to those on a placebo,” said Beverley Lawton, University of Otago, Wellington and New Zealand arm of the study.
“These new data should be added to the risk/benefit equation for HRT. The quality of life benefits of HRT may be greater in women with more severe symptoms near menopause. New research suggests that HRT taken from near menopause avoids the cardiovascular risks seen when HRT is initiated many years after menopause.”
The results of the latest study by the WISDOM research team (Women’s International Study of long Duration Oestrogen after Menopause), funded by Medical Research Council (UK), were published Friday on the British Medical Journal website.