HRT - Summary

There is no current doubt that HRT increases the risk of many illnesses, such as CHD, stroke, Venous Thromboembolic Disease, and dementia. If you do not need HRT to get through menopause, there does not seem to be any reason to justify taking hormones. If you suffer from severe menopausal symptoms,and HRT helps alleviate them, you should consider the risks associated with taking hormones, compared to the risk involved with daily living with the severe symptoms. For example, if loss of sleep could cause you to have an automobile accident, this may override the concern for increased CVD. And while the risks are significant, actual mortality does not seem to be impacted by HRT.

It may help to read our tutorial on the meaning of risk.

To recap, if you, as part of a group of 100 women, are on HRT, there will be

1. Three more cases of CVD (16 instead of 13 without HRT) in the next 10 years, 84 women out of the 100 not impacted.
2. One more case of breast cancer (4 instead of 3 without HRT) in the next 10 years, 96 women not impacted.
3. 2 more cases of dementia (4 instead of 2) in the next 10 years, 96 women not impacted.
4. 4 less fractures (15 instead of 19) in the next 10 years, 81 women not impacted.

Another way to look at this is to realize that one way or another, 10 women out of 100 will get CVD in the next several years. With HRT, it will take 6 years, and without - 8 years. With HRT it will take 23 years for 10 of the women to get dementia; without - 44 years.

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