The aim of a recently published study by Cummings and colleagues was to survey the views of women who stopped hormone replacement therapy (HRT) after 2002, including those who later restarted [1]. A questionnaire survey was carried out on the UK-based menopause website www.menopausematters.co.uk, evaluating how women were influenced by HRT advice. The main outcome measures were the answers to questions regarding stopping/restarting HRT in response to the advice in the early 2000s and advice given today. A total of 1100 responses were obtained. Of those who made the decision to stop HRT themselves, 56.4% ([i]n[/i] = 425/754) said that they were influenced by the media. In those who would potentially most benefit from HRT, 72.8% ([i]n[/i] = 220/302) stopped without medical advice. Overall, women aged under 50 years were significantly more likely to stop HRT themselves than women over 50 years ([i]p[/i] < 0.001). In women in whom symptoms returned, 37.5% ([i]n[/i] = 362/966) said these affected their ability to work, 45.1% ([i]n[/i] = 436) had problems with decision making, 53.6% ([i]n[/i] = 518) admitted to relationships being negatively affected and 29.2% ([i]n[/i] = 286) said that symptoms affected their social relationships. Overall, 46.5% of women ([i]n[/i] = 485/1044) would not have stopped HRT given the current understanding of risk. Compared with women over 50, significantly more women under the age of 50 said that they would not have previously stopped their HRT based on their current understanding of risk ([i]p[/i] < 0.001).
Author(s)
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Nick Panay
Queen Charlottes & Chelsea and Chelsea & Westminster Hospitals, London, UK
Citations
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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21903711 -
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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19237616