Menopause news

A critique of Women's Health Initiative Studies.

27 November 2006

The initial results of the Women’s Health Initiative trial were first published in 2002. Results at that time suggested that women taking combined HRT had increased risks of breast cancer, heart disease, stroke and blood clot. Later reporting of the oestrogen only part of the trial showed an increased risk of stroke in the women taking oestrogen. Widespread reporting of these results led to many women stopping HRT and despite further information subsequently becoming available which showed less risk that initially believed, there continues to be concern about the use of HRT.
James Clark from the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Houston, Texas has further analysed the results and his findings, published in Nuclear Receptor Signaling Atlas, [Ref 32] demonstrates how the initial conclusions reached were either incorrect or require modifications. When looking at the numbers of cases in the trial as absolute figures, it is clear that numbers of, for example, breast cancer and heart disease, are very small and not significant. Further, his statistical analysis leads to the conclusion that women taking combined HRT in the trial had NO significant increased risks of heart disease, invasive breast cancer, stroke and blood clot and that there was NO significant increase in stroke in the women taking oestrogen only.
It is likely that many women have stopped HRT unnecessarily and are now suffering from problems which HRT could have prevented.
Full article on http://www.nursa.org/article.cfm?doi=10.1621/nrs.04023

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