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[Berto77]

I found this article entitled: "I’m going to stay young": Belief in anti-aging efficacy of menopausal hormone therapy drives prolonged use despite medical risks it is here:
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0233703

It is interesting as it suggests that women stay on HRT for prolonged periods to stay "young" I'm not sure i agree with the way that article frames things because equally the women could say I want to stay on HRT to stay healthy and strong! However the paper seems to suggest that staying on HRT long term is perhaps unwise and that the current narrative around HRT is driven too much by pharmaceutical influence, the paper is published in 2020 so not that old. I was under the impression that it was becoming better understood that HRT started early and stayed on was considered safe long term and that risks were associated with older forms of synthetic HRT and potentially with starting HRT 15 + after menopause when many of the estrogen receptors had already stopped working giving supplemental estrogen no place to go.

I am very new into HRT about 6 months now and its a journey but I do feel much better in many ways, I'm 44 so feel like I'd probably perfer to keep using HRT at least until the end of my working life which is probably another 20 years at least! I was under the impression by certain women's health advocates that this was probably very possible for me as long as I had no major issues. This article does make me wonder though, anyone else care to offer any thoughts on this?

This is a quote from the paper:

"Participants perceived estrogen to have anti-aging efficacy, and using HT imparted a sense of control over various aspects of aging. Maintaining this sense of control was prioritized over potential risk from prolonged use. Our findings provide an additional perspective on previous work suggesting the pharmaceutical industry has leveraged older women’s self-esteem, vanity, and fear of aging to sell hormones through marketing practices designed to shape the beliefs of both clinicians and patients. Efforts are needed to: 1) address misconceptions among patients and providers about medically supported uses and risks of prolonged HT, and 2) examine commercial influences, such as medical ghostwriting, that may lead to distorted views of HT efficacy and risk."

[CLKD]

Interesting.  I think many take HRT to ease symptoms.  MayB some see that as 'staying young' ?  The rest probably get relief from symptoms with no thought of 'staying young'.  I'm 16 in my head    .  My body however .........

It is thought that women can continue with HRT for ever ;-).

[Berto77]

I agree that its more about being well and having quality of life, perhaps these researchers think we should just live in pain and despair instead? It is just a curious paper as they seem to say that hrt increases the risk of dementia and other illnesses while recent studies on more modern hrt seems to suggest they actually work to preserve a womans health and may even help prevent dementia? I wonder if they did not differentiate between the types of studies done, the new and old reseach or types of HRT used? They have a list running down the papers they used in writing their analysis and there are a mix of older and newer studies including the one done in Finland (2019) which said there was an increase in dementia in older women who used systemic HRT but other studies have shown no difference or even a reduction in risk of dementia and they do no use these studies so it seems a little biased. I'll have a read though mentioned papers but I suspect it will be a mixed bag!

[sheila99]

Seems the participants (only 30 of them) know more than the researchers
'Results
Women reported using HT to preserve youthful physical and mental function and prevent disease. Gynecologists had reassured participants regarding risk, about which all 30 expressed little concern. Participants, rather than providers, were the principal drivers of long-term use.'

They know transdermal hrt is safe whereas the researchers are relying on the old horse urine studies to say it isn't. Their premis is ' Use of HT more than 5 years is associated with increased risk for cardiovascular disease; breast, ovarian, and endometrial cancers; thromboembolic stroke; gallbladder disease; dementia; and incontinence.'

So we use it to 'preserve youthful physical and mental function and prevent disease.'
They seem to confuse vanity with staying healthy and able to enjoy living a full life for longer. Hands up anyone who would chose to be frail and incapable if they didn't have to.

Pile of  💩 in my opinion. Sorry.

[Joaniepat]

Take a look at the authors' details. This practise is known as "getting a paper out of it" (ie, a small and meaningless study). Sadly, it was all too common when I was involved in scientific research. Seems it still goes on 🙄.
JP x

[Berto77]

Pile of  💩 in my opinion. Sorry.

Don't be sorry I was a bit 🤔 myself at the article, especially given it is pretty recent and didn't seem to match up with more current research. I'm not a scientist so I'm not sure of what their motivation was but I did think their list of sources was a bit odd, using some very old material including a book from 1994 by a journalist called " The menopause industry : how the medical establishment exploits women" by Sandra Coney, its on the internet archive so I'm going have a look at it but seems to be a feminist response to the idea that women need to be medicalised once they start to age. I'm sure there is a place for this argument but i do think feminisim and medicine have moved on a lot since then.

@joniepat: Interesting that you say they are just "getting a paper out of it" it does seem like they just picked a theme and made their findings fit that rather than give an even handed account of the research!

[CLKD]

Similar to those who want to 'stay young' by having Botox etc.  the more press coverage the more it is likely to become fashionable?

[sheila99]

Botox is different and it is just for vanity as there are no health benefits. For many of us hrt stops a host of unpleasant health issues, even without the heart and bone protection.

[CLKD]

Yep.  I digressed.  A bit  .

Another meander in that it costs a lot to research and develop medications.   Companies want to sell as much as possible B4 the patents run out.