Menopause and hormone replacement therapy (HRT) are important issues today for women. Estrogens improve climacteric complaints and substantially reduce osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease. Rational clinical practice during the years of
climacteric
transition requires counselling on the risks and benefits of hormone replacement therapy and proper management of HRT users. Recently, significant findings from two clinical trials have been published in The Journal of the American Medical
Association
regarding postmenopausal women’s use of oral conjugated equine estrogens and oral medroxyprogesterone acetate. This article reports principal results for the trial of combined estrogen and progestin in women with a uterus. The trial was stopped
early
based on health risks that exceeded health benefits over an average follow-up of 5.2 years. But, we advised Women who for a number of years have been on the combined estrogen/progestin therapy studied here should not panic, but discuss their
individual
situation with their physician. As for individual women, a decision about hormone use should take into account a woman’s individual risk for specific conditions that may be harmed or benefited by hormone use. With respect to women on short-term use
of
combination hormone therapy for relief of menopausal symptoms, We note that although such use was not the focus of this study, it may be reasonable for women to continue use for this purpose, since the benefits are likely to outweigh the risks.
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