New Findings and Benefits of Hormone Replacement Therapy

Women to Women Podcast | Natural Health Solutions for Menopause Hormonal Imbalance PMS Hot Flashes Mood Swings Depression, Sex problems and more

Hi, I’m Dr. Dixie Mills at the Women to Women Personal Program. You may have heard the news about two recent studies on the benefits of Hormone Replacement Therapy for women entering menopause.

It seems like a long time ago now that doctors routinely put women on HRT, not just to help with menopause symptoms because they believed hormones prevented chronic illnesses such as cardiovascular issues and Alzheimer’s disease. This practice came to a halt after the 2002 Women’s Health Initiative reported the dangers of Hormone Replacement Therapy.

But this new research is raising new questions about HRT. It’s important to note that there are some major differences between what came out this month and what researchers were looking at ten years ago. The first difference is the age of the study members. Women participating in the Women’s Health Initiative study were between the ages of 50 and 79. This newer research was completed with women much closer to menopause, women in their 40’s and 50’s. So it is hypothesized that their hormones were likely still in the process of tapering off.

Second, there’s a difference in the number of women study. The WHI hormone study included 26,000 women, while the recent studies included closer to just a thousand. Finally, the type and dose of estrogen and progesterone was different as with the link the time women were on the therapy.

So here’s what researchers found. The Kronos Early Estrogen Prevention Study known as KEEPS followed 727 women for four years on low doses of oral estrogen or estrogen patches, and cyclic monthly progesterone. All hormone groups experienced improvements and hot flashes, night sweats, moods, sexual function, and bone density, and there were no adverse events associated with the hormone group in this short-term study.

A hospital in Denmark has completed a ten-year study on over a thousand women taking HRT. The authors concluded that women receiving hormone replacement therapy early after menopause have a significantly reduced risk of mortality from heart failure or heart attack, without any apparent risk, and risk of cancer, venous thromboembolism or clot, or stroke.

Both of these studies confirm that we at Women to Women have advised for years. If you and your doctor decide HRT as a good option, initiate treatment as close to your last period as you can. We also recommend using bio-identical hormones as opposed to synthetic or horse estrogen, and to investigate herbal treatments and lifestyle modifications as a hormone-free alternative.

These new studies beg the question, “What does a woman do when she wants to stop taking HRT and when should she stop? After five years? Seven years? And who is to say that her symptoms are going to be any different?” Ultimately, the decision to go on HRT is extremely individual and should be weighed carefully with your doctor.

Even with the positive results of these recent studies, it’s important to understand that using HRT as a prevention against chronic disease is not recommended. The US Task Force concluded that the harms of hormone therapy for the prevention of chronic conditions outweigh any benefits. Hormones aren’t back per se, but I think we, as a medical community, are taking a more individual approach to their use.

Feel free to read our article on the new findings on HRT since the Women’s Health Initiative for tips on how to decide if HRT is right for you. For more great health information, check out my blog on www.womentowomen.com.