Hormone replacement therapy, or HRT, means adding back hormones to a woman's body after her ovaries have stopped producing them. By replacing the estrogen, progesterone and sometimes testosterone that are no longer being made in the ovaries, a woman can alleviate menopause symptoms such as hot flashes, mood issues, sleeping problems and decreased libido. HRT can be taken in the form of a pill, injection, vaginal cream or patch. All forms of HRT can cause side effects.
Blood Clots
In 2002, a landmark study called the Women's Health Initiative showed several risks associated with HRT, blood clots being one of them. Over the course of a year, among 10,000 postmenopausal women taking estrogen and progestin together, 18 more developed blood clots than in a similar group of non-HRT women. The chance of developing blood clots is lower when the HRT is taken in patch form than when it's taken as a pill, according to Medline Plus, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.
Cancer
The Women's Health Initiative also found eight more cases of breast cancer in the HRT group than in the non-HRT group. But generally, when HRT is taken for less than 5 years, HRT is considered safe with regard to breast cancer, according to Medline Plus. Taking estrogen by itself dramatically raises the risk of endometrial cancer, but taking progesterone along with the estrogen appears to be protective against the cancer.
Cardiovascular Disease
HRT led, in the Women's Health Initiative, to seven cases of heart disease and eight cases of stroke in older women. However, HRT in relatively younger women--those in the years immediately after menopause--may have a protective effect against heart disease, according to the Mayo Clinic. Additionally, the patch may lead to a lower risk of heart disease than HRT in pill form.
Gallbladder Disease
Women who take HRT have a higher chance of developing gallbladder disease than do other women. Women currently on HRT had a 64 percent higher chance of being hospitalized for gallbladder disease in a 2008 study by Bette Liu, a clinical epidemiologist at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, and her colleagues that was published in the British Medical Journal. But the risk was lower--only 17 percent higher than in the non-HRT group--when the HRT was taken by patch or gel as opposed to pill form. The gallbladder is less affected because the hormones in them are not metabolized in the liver.
Member Comments