Hormone therapy guide issued by ACOG task force

Although much is known about the risks and benefits associated with HT, its effects on younger women are still not clear.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. Nov. 15, 2004.

Washington -- Findings from the Women's Health Initiative released more than two years ago set in motion a broad swing away from use of hormone therapy that is just now settling down to a more moderate approach, and this is good, says a new guide.

A task force of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists scrutinized the evidence surrounding the use of estrogen and estrogen/progestin products and found the hormones can still play an important treatment role, particularly to alleviate hot flashes. The task force advised physicians to consider prescribing hormones for women with persistent hot flashes for longer than the average four years it takes most vasomotor symptoms to disappear.

A guide produced by the task force and published as a supplement to the October issue of ACOG's Obstetrics and Gynecology also found it appropriate to use the controversial therapy to treat women who say they "feel better on hormone therapy or who feel it improves sexuality," said the group's chair, Isaac Schiff, MD, chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Findings from the WHI released in July 2002 generated numerous calls to physicians from women struggling to understand whether they should continue taking hormone therapies. One arm of the large study was halted early because of the finding that estrogen/progestin caused a small increased risk for breast cancer.

A second arm was terminated earlier this year when it was determined that estrogen alone provided no protection from heart disease and might increase a woman's risk of stroke.