New findings and results of medical research are published every day. In 2001, the Women’s Health Initiative studying the effects of taking hormones after menopause abruptly stopped its studies of women who were taking estrogen plus progestin (Prempro) because of bad effects (adverse events).
Women were advised by their doctors to stop taking these medications and other women, alarmed by media reports of the bad effects stopped taking the medications on their own. Media and medical journals reports were alarming, and failed to adequately separate out women who had undergone removal of their uterus (hysterectomy) and were taking estrogen hormone alone.
Estrogen-only treatment has been found to protect the hearts and bones of women when taken during the 10-years after menopause. Unfortunately, these positive effects of estrogen treatment in this group of women was lost in the upset over the findings in the WHI study and many of these women, who were being helped by estrogen treatment – for symptoms, heart and bone effects and overall lower death rate – were also advised to stop treatment.
Pretty confusing to most people, including physicians. What seems clear is that post-menopausal women cannot, and should not, be lumped together as a group. Women approaching menopause who have had their uterus removed may well benefit from a defined course of estrogen therapy and may benefit more from transdermal (patches) estrogen than pills.
Every woman should discuss the risks and benefits of taking estrogen at menopause with their physicians. Women, like people in general, come in groups of one.