Hormone therapy for first-line management of menopausal symptoms: Practical recommendations
Author(s)
Palacios, Santiago
Stevenson, John C
Schaudig, Katrin
Lukasiewicz, Monika
Graziottin, Alessandra
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Hormone therapy use has undergone dramatic changes over the past 20 years. Widespread use of hormone therapy in the 1980s and 1990s came to an abrupt halt in the early 2000s after initial findings of the Women’s Health Initiative trial were published and the study was terminated. Since then, much has been learned about the characteristics of women most likely to benefit from hormone therapy. There is general agreement that women younger than 60 years or who initiate hormone therapy within 10 years of menopause onset gain short-term benefit in terms of symptomatic relief and long-term benefit in terms of protection from chronic diseases that affect postmenopausal women. Despite accumulating evidence in support of hormone therapy for symptomatic menopausal women, the slow response by the medical community has led to a ‘large and unnecessary burden of suffering’ by women worldwide. Greater efforts are clearly needed to educate physicians and medical students about the pathophysiology of menopause and the role of hormone therapy in supporting women through the transition. This article provides a brief historical perspective of events that led to the backlash against hormone therapy, explores the current position of guideline groups, and provides practical recommendations to guide first-line management of symptomatic menopausal women.
Date Issued
2019-08-01
Date Acceptance
2019-06-24
Citation
Women's Health, 2019, 15, pp.1-8
ISSN
1745-5057
Publisher
SAGE Publications (UK and US)
Start Page
1
End Page
8
Journal / Book Title
Women's Health
Volume
15
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2019. Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial
use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and
Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial
use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and
Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000479228300001&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Obstetrics & Gynecology
breast cancer
guidelines
hormone therapy
menopause
venous thromboembolism
women's health
BREAST-CANCER RISK
REPLACEMENT THERAPY
POSTMENOPAUSAL WOMEN
VASOMOTOR SYMPTOMS
HEALTH
ESTROGEN
DISEASE
IMPACT
ENDOMETRIUM
PREVENTION
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
UNSP 1745506519864009
Date Publish Online
2019-08-05