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A 2002 study showing that hormone replacement therapy raises the risk of heart disease and breast cancer -scaring many women away from the drugs -was fundamentally flawed, according to new research. "Women are now being told not to take hormones for heart disease prevention ,and that may be totally wrong."said Dr Edward Klaiber ,a Worcester,Massachusetts endocrinologist and lead author of the study to be published on Friday in the journal fertility and Sterility.Hormone replacement therapy was once routinely prescribed to women as they reached menopause in the belief that it would relieve unpleasant symptoms like hot flashes while protecting against heart disease and oesteoporosis.In July 2002, women taking estrogen and progestin were told to visit their doctors and perhaps stop after the Womens Health Initiative (WHI) said a trial of Whyeths Prempro showed that the drug raised the risk of heart attack, stroke and some forms of cancer.At the time of the WHI trials design,hormone replacement therapy usually involved cyclical progesterone,meaning that it was taken 10 or 12 days a month.But the daily combined drug was deemed more convenient because patients didnt have to remember which days to take a second pill and because it eliminated a monthly menstrual period researchers,said. |
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| Posted : 12/17/2005 |
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