Pros and Cons of Hormone Therapy:
Making an Informed Decision
THE CURRENT WISDOM ABOUT HORMONE THERAPY
Current research and practice suggest that most women experiencing severe or unpleasant menopausal symptoms, particularly hot flashes, night sweats and vaginal dryness will find relief through short-term use of hormone therapy (less than 5 years).
Control of night sweats may help women get needed rest and contribute to a greater sense of well-being. Relieving vaginal dryness can help make sex more pleasurable. HT may help with stress incontinence (frequent urination or poor bladder control) that some women experience at this time. While some women are helped with menopausal mood swings, others experience irritability as a side effect of hormone use.
Women with osteoporosis or at high risk of osteoporosis are also likely to benefit from long-term use of HT. This must be carefully balanced against the risk of breast cancer or other conditions that suggest hormone therapy not be used.
HT should not be used to reduce your risk of heart disease.
There are many other claims concerning HT that need to be further researched and assessed. For example, there has been much media attention about estrogen and Alzheimer's disease. While we know that estrogen is important to the memory areas of the brain, there is little evidence to show that estrogen pills improve memory in healthy women. The few studies that have been done to determine a connection between estrogen therapy and Alzheimer's have failed to establish that estrogen supplementation delays or prevents the onset of Alzheimer's. Studies done so far have also been based on small numbers of women or had other limitations.
Two (2) promising studies, the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study (WHIMS) and the Women's Health Initiative Study of Cognitive Aging, sponsored by the American National Institutes of Health will examine the relation between hormones and mental acuity in more detail; however, data on these issues will not likely be available until 2006.
