Hormone therapy fear quelled

The same researchers who in 2002 shocked women around the world into ditching HRT over fears of heart disease and stroke have now acknowledged their research was flawed.

After re-analysing their data the US scientists have found HRT poses no threat to women under 60, and can actually offer protection against the illnesses they previously said it caused.

The U-turn has prompted calls for women to resume the treatment to fight the symptoms of menopause, reversing the advice many Australian doctors have been following.

Of the estimated 150,000 Victorian women using HRT pills, patches and nasal sprays when the 2002 findings were released, half abandoned their prescribed treatment.

Thousands more who endured problems in the past five years did not start the treatment, but Monash University professor of women's health Sue Davis said doctors and patients could now be confident there was a safe, effective way to treat symptoms.

"If you look at women between 50 and 59 -- the women who are the most likely to take HRT -- it doesn't appear to have any adverse cardiac risk.

"It is completely different to what they said last time."

Prof Davis said hundreds of thousands of Australian women endured years of flushes, sweats and depression, and spent million of dollars on questionable alternative therapies, because of the widely publicised findings.

Prof Davis said: "There was a kneejerk reaction where people said: 'Oh my God.' It was a bit like one swallow doesn't make a summer, but here it did and one major study threw everybody out."

A trial of more than 27,000 women found those using HRT to be 29 per cent more likely to have heart problems, and run a 41 per cent higher risk of stroke, and a 26 per cent greater risk of breast cancer.

Women taking part in the trial were thought to be in so much danger the trial was called off three years early.

But the original results have been overturned because they did not take into account the age of the patient or the number of years since menopause.

The new research, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found HRT's timing could influence its effect on cardiovascular disease.

The research -- by Dr Jacques Rossouw, of the Women's Health Initiative Branch, who also headed the 2002 study -- found that hormone therapy had a neutral effect on women soon after menopause.

"The findings are consistent with current recommendations that hormone therapy be used in the short term for relief of moderate or severe vaso-motor symptoms, but not in the longer term for prevention of cardiovascular disease," the researchers concluded.

source:www.news.com.au