By IANS,
London : Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is safe for most women entering menopause, according to an international group of experts.
In a “state-of-the-science summary” presented Tuesday at the World Congress on Menopause in Madrid, the experts said healthy women going through early menopause who need HRT to relieve symptoms should have no fears about its use.
The summary is a result of deliberations earlier this year at the First Global Summit on Menopause-Related Issues in Zürich, where global experts in menopause reviewed the evidence on the safety, risks and benefits of HRT in the first few years of menopause.
In particular, they looked at the four main areas of controversy: cardiovascular health, breast issues, cognition, and bone issues.
The experts compared public perception with actual safety, and have now issued their advisory to enable women and clinicians to make informed judgements about whether or not to use HRT in early menopause.
HRT use declined after the 2002 Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study which seemed to show that women taking HRT were at greater risk of breast cancer and heart disease.
The study had a dramatic effect on public perceptions and confidence in the use of HRT.
However, it soon was clear that the WHI sample was not representative of women taking HRT, and was characterised by a high incidence of several important risk factors that are unusual in younger women.
Most glaringly, the average age of women in the WHI study was 63 – a decade older than the age at which most women begin taking HRT.
Also, of women randomly assigned in the WHI study, 36 percent had hypertension, 49 percent were current or past smokers, and 34 percent were clinically obese, which are all factors which would contribute to increased health problems.