Hormone Replacement Therapy - Advantages and Risks

Over a very short period, the medical community has recently undergone a most dramatic "about face", in its approach to Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), impacting many millions of women. One week, women were prescribed Estrogen + Progesterone both to help menopausal and post-menopausal symptoms such as "hot flashes", and as a measure to prevent future Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) and a variety of other illnesses. The next week, women were told to cease use of these hormones, because they provided no benefit for CHD, and enhanced the risk for some other illnesses.

In the following, we will describe what medical studies led to the initial (wrong) conclusions, and what the current data say about the risk involved in HRT. Finally, we will try to sort out what the risks are for women whose menopausal symptoms are more severe than average, and who could attain relief with HRT.


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