Hormone Replacement Therapy May Increase Risk of Certain Diseases
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) announced on Tuesday that post menopausal women using Hormone Replacement Therapy were at decreased risk of bone-fractures but were at increased risk of developing other diseases like stroke or gallbladder disease.
The study was based on analysis of Women Health Initiative, a large-scale study that involved nearly 160,000 women with a 15 year follow up.
"You would think there wasn't much room for concern. That's not exactly correct," said Dr. Rowan Chlebowski, the principal investigator for the Women's Health Initiative, to Los Angeles Times.
USPSTF also said that hormone therapy increased risk for thromboembolic events, and urinary incontinence. Estrogen alone decreased the risk for breast cancer while estrogen coupled with progestin increased risk of breast cancer and dementia.
"This [Preventive Services Task Force] recommendation kind of says, 'Not so fast.' ... It's a pretty sophisticated argument to make," Chlebowski said.
“For newly menopausal women who have these symptoms and are in generally good health, the benefits of treatment are likely to outweigh the risks,” said Dr. JoAnn Manson, chief of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, to ABC News.
Lead author Heidi Nelson from Oregon Health & Science University, wrote that there were limitations in their study. Important of which were low adherence to the therapy by women in the studies and the narrow range of age (which was generally between 60 and 69) of the participants.
The Los Angeles Times reported that these recommendations may not apply for women who use HRT for menopausal-associated reasons like vaginal dryness or hot flashes and that a final word on these will come soon in a report by a federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
"There are no magic pills or magic bullets. Get off your butt, eat a healthy diet, don’t smoke and lead a healthy lifestyle. If it's post-menopausal symptoms that bother you, talk to your doctor about short-term treatment with HRT,” Dr. Ranit Mishori, an associate professor at Georgetown University School of Medicine, told ABC News.
"It all depends on what you take HRT for, for how long and when you start," Mishori said.
USPSTF had earlier announced that it recommends against PSA-based screening for prostate cancer in men and routine breast cancer screening for women.
The study is published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.