A national task force suggests hormone therapy does not help with chronic conditions.A new study published by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends that postmenopausal women should not use hormone therapy to prevent chronic medical conditions, because the risk of significant side effects outweighs the unclear evidence of a benefit.
In an accompanying editorial, University of Alabama at Birmingham Division of Preventive Medicine Professor Cora Lewis, M.D., agreed with the task force’s recommendations.
“Today, fewer postmenopausal women are using hormone therapy,” Lewis said in the editorial. “Many physicians and organizations are cautious and consider hormone therapy appropriate only for climacteric symptoms.”
According to the study, most chronic conditions — coronary heart disease, dementia, stroke, breast cancer and fractures — are more common with increasing age; but there is little evidence to link them with hormonal changes.
Hormone therapy was once commonly prescribed to prevent these conditions, until results from the large Women’s Health Initiative study revealed serious adverse health effects in postmenopausal women who received menopausal hormone therapy.
Lewis — who served as principal investigator in the landmark WHI trials, which played a major role in these new recommendations — says that, although hormone therapy will not improve chronic conditions, it can provide comfort for climacteric symptoms for healthy, younger menopausal women.
Lewis says there are other ways to prevent chronic diseases like coronary heart disease and diabetes besides hormone therapy.
“For women in their 50s with sufficiently bothersome symptoms actually due to menopause, hormone therapy can be considered after a discussion of benefits and risks between the woman and her doctor or provider,” she said. “Symptom relief is distinct from long-term prevention of chronic disease.”