HEALTHDoctors work to ease anxiety over hormone replacement therapyNew studies have left patients on HRT reeling and physicians reevaluating risk factors before deciding where to go from here.By Susan J. Landers, amednews staff. Aug. 5, 2002. Washington -- Physicians' telephones began ringing shortly after the news broke July 9 that a large federal study on hormone replacement therapy had been halted because researchers determined that participants taking a combination of estrogen and progestin had a higher risk of breast cancer and coronary heart disease. In the weeks since, both doctors and patients have been rethinking this therapy -- once considered an almost silver-bullet solution to the variety of problems women face as they age. "We've had many, many phone calls and patient visits from women either already on hormones or contemplating taking them," said Andrea Kielich, MD, an internist in a Portland, Ore., multispecialty clinic. On the East Coast, the story was the same. Kathleen Fitzgerald, MD, a gynecologist in Providence, R.I., and a clinical assistant professor at Brown University, said her phone was still ringing constantly more than a week after the findings had been played prominently in news reports. "Women are panicked, which is understandable given the tenor of the media reporting," Dr. Fitzgerald said. In addition to phone calls, patients of Dan Van Durme, MD, a family physician in Tampa, Fla., have been reaching him via fax and e-mail. But he may have prepared his patients for the headlines. "Medicine changes all the time," he has warned them over the years. The reason driving the amount of anxiety is clear. About 6 million women in the United States take estrogen in combination with progestin for the short-term relief of hot flashes, sleeplessness and vaginal dryness that often accompany menopause as well as for the long-term prevention of osteoporosis and heart disease.
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Copyright 2002 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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The doctors are in the house
The AMA's House of Delegates is holding its Interim Meeting Nov. 7-10 in Houston, addressing issues such as health system reform and physician payment. Meeting coverage - Slideshow Feature articlesHealth reform review The Massachusetts experience Litigation stress Being sued is personal as well as professional Comprehensive coverage
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