Article published July 11, 2002
A risk too great?
With public figures such as Lauren Hutton and Patti LaBelle pushing the benefits of hormone replacement therapy, or HRT as it's commonly known, middle-aged women know that hormones can help them through night sweats, mood swings, and hot flashes.
But a study sponsored by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute now warns that the risks outweigh the benefits in women who take estrogen plus progestin for long periods.
So researchers were right to advise study participants to stop HRT.
Hormone replacement therapy has helped millions of menopausal women cope with some of the most debilitating signs of aging. But the downside, the potentially greater risk of cancer, heart disease, and other ailments, was a factor women had to consider, and the new study suggests that the risk, while still small, is genuine.
The more than 16,600 women between the ages of 50 and 79 in the estrogen and progestin trial study, directed by the Women's Health Initiative, had expected to stay in it through March, 2005. Cutting short the estrogen and progestin part of the study indicates the extent of scientists' concern.
The research focused on the effects of estrogen and progestin in the prevention of heart disease and on changes in breast and colon cancer in women who had not had a hysterectomy. But scientists found that even though fewer women taking the hormone combination had colorectal cancer and hip fractures, the risks for breast cancer, heart attacks, blood clots, and strokes increased.
Some researchers maintained that the danger to a woman is so small that there is no reason to panic. But when the risk prevailed over the benefits, the right thing to do was to stop the study. "The trial was stopped at the first clear indication of increased risk," a biostatistician in Seattle said.
Now, doctors will have to find new ways to prescribe hormones for menopausal women who endure severe symptoms, and women will have to explore other avenues to manage their discomfort.
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