Questionnaire

Summary of Views on HRT

Results posted: June 20 2007

Views on HRT
Three quarters of respondents were in favour of HRT, while the remaining one-quarter said they would never use it. The most likely group who said they would never use it were the premenopausal women.

In response to the question concerning reports of HRT in the media: of those who answered, 36% of women felt the risks had been exaggerated while only 10%, felt the reports were balanced.  However more than half (54%), admitted to not being able to make up their minds. 60%, said their views towards HRT over the past four years had not changed while 23%, admitted to their views becoming less favourable towards.  In contrast 17%, said their views had become more favourable.
 
Although the majority of women knew that different HRT preparations had different risks 55%, the majority of postmenopausal women (54%), menopausal women (63%) and premenopausal women (61%) were unaware that the age at which one starts HRT can affects the risk of HRT.

Of the women who answered the question “did you have enough information to make an informed choice regarding whether or not to start HRT?” overall 73%, felt they were not informed enough. The majority of women obtain information from health professionals 41% and the Internet 33% rather than books press magazines or other family members.

The results highlight that women still feel they are not obtaining enough information to make important decisions regarding HRT and that adverse media reporting has not had a totally negative impact on women’s willingness to consider HRT