A Comeback For Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT)

The pendulum on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is now "officially" swinging back in the other direction.

Until the early 2000s, HRT was thought to be good for women, as it helped with post-menopausal bone loss and caused favorable changes in lipid profiles. However, three randomized clinical trials were published at the turn of the millennium that changed all that. Women on HRT, the studies showed, turned out to have more cardiovascular events than women not on HRT. For the past several years, HRT has been felt to be dangerous, and has been withheld from most women.

But then, over the past 3 - 4 years, investigators took a much more critical look at those randomized trials and a few others. And they began to see evidence that for younger post-menopausal women (i.e., those under the age of 60 who were in their first decade after menopause), HRT might not be harmful - and could even help to reduce cardiovascular disease.

This week, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) has released a statement endorsing the use of at least some HRT in at least some of these younger post-menopausal women. You can read about the AACE statement, and its implication for women, here.