Advantages And Hazards Of Hormone Replacement Therapy (hrt)

Two interesting studies involving hormone replacement therapy (HRT) were in my local paper today. One study linked HRT to an increase in asthma and the opposite study linked HRT to a decrease in colon cancer. The asthma/HRT study was printed in a very medical journal, Thorax, and followed the treatment of 57,000 French ladies who were of menopause age to determine their risk of developing asthma. Not one of the ladies had asthma at the start of the study. The study kept track of how much hormone treatment they were on whether or not it had been hormonal contraceptives or HRT and tracked them over a amount of ten years. This study found that women taking a combined HRT, or an HRT containing both oestrogen and progesterone weren't additional possible to induce asthma but girls taking only estrogen HRT were a lot of doubtless to develop asthma than ladies who never take HRT. The estrogen solely group was 67% more probably than the non-treatment cluster to get asthma, so this can be a pretty substantial number. Once the treatment was stopped, the risk gradually reduced.

The colon cancer/HRT study was originally revealed within the American Journal of Epidemiology but as I said, I found a little blurb regarding it in my local paper so I do not have the initial publish date. This paper is about a study conducted on 57,000 teachers in California. This study found that girls undergoing HRT were thirty six% less probably to induce colon cancer versus girls who had never undergone HRT. As a result of of the opposite risks associated with HRT, such as strokes and heart disease, it is still ultimately not recommended to take HRT just to reduce the incidence of colon cancer. The study additionally found that after the ladies stopped taking HRT, their colon cancer risk came to the identical as that of the non-treated women.

It appears sort of a never ending saga when it comes to HRT. For years HRT was the standard treatment of selection for menopausal ladies, it had been used to treat hot flashes and many alternative signs of menopause with nice success. Unfortunately this treatment came with a bunch of facet effects that ultimately proved the adage "the cure is worse than the disease". Within the 1990's a large study was done by the Women's Health Initiative that showed that HRT reduced the chance of osteoporosis and colon cancer but increased the danger of strokes, breast cancer, embolisms, and heart disease. This study led many women and doctors to stop using and recommending HRT as the treatment of choice for menopause symptoms.

Despite these known risks, HRT continues to be in use today. For some women, this treatment is the only treatment that works for his or her symptoms therefore it is value the additional risk. Usually HRT is employed only for a short time and at rock bottom dose doable to provide relief.

The studies I simply happened to seek out in my native paper still cloud the HRT waters. It's somewhat of a bitter irony that the one thing that has proven the most successful at treating the vast majority of symptoms suffered by thus many menopausal girls is additionally doubtless dangerous. But not solely is it dangerous, it additionally has helpful attributes. So, it works, it's dangerous, and it has some positive health benefits.

Clearly we have a tendency to haven't heard the last word on hormone replacement therapy, additional studies will be done and additional conflicting information can be disseminated. Where will this leave us? Well, all we have a tendency to will do is create the foremost informed selections we will with the simplest info readily available and defer to our own judgment and the professional opinions of our doctors.