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Hormone replacement therapy

from Medical topics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2014

By
Christine Stephens
Edited by
Susan Ayers ,
Andrew Baum ,
Chris McManus ,
Stanton Newman ,
Kenneth Wallston ,
John Weinman  and
Robert West
Christine Stephens
Affiliation:
Massey University
Susan Ayers
Affiliation:
University of Sussex
Andrew Baum
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
Chris McManus
Affiliation:
St Mary's Hospital Medical School
Stanton Newman
Affiliation:
University College and Middlesex School of Medicine
Kenneth Wallston
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University School of Nursing
John Weinman
Affiliation:
United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas's
Robert West
Affiliation:
St George's Hospital Medical School, University of London
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Summary

With an unprecedented number of women living beyond midlife in western countries, the impact of menopause is an important public health issue. Middle-aged women are one of the largest single age groups in these populations, and every middle-aged woman must inevitably experience menopause. Since the 1950s, exogenous hormones known as hormone replacement therapy (HRT) have been increasingly prescribed to women to counteract adverse symptoms at menopause (McPherson, 2004). More recently it was suggested that long term HRT was beneficial and use by middle-aged women in Britain, increased substantially, from under 5% in the 1980s to 33% in 1998 (Kmietowicz, 2000). In the US, 38% of menopausal women were taking HRT in 2002 (Minelli et al., 2004). In New Zealand, HRT use among middle-aged women increased from 12% in 1991 to 20% in 1997 (North & Sharples, 2001). However, the findings of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) study (Rossouw et al., 2002) received much media attention, changed perceptions of the risks and benefits and were associated with an immediate change in use. In the United States, Haas et al. (2004) reported a drop in use among women undergoing mammography of 18% per quarter. In New Zealand, 58% of 998 women initially stopped taking HRT (Lawton et al., 2003). These dramatic changes reflect the problems involved in making a decision about HRT for many women.

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Chapter
Information
Cambridge Handbook of Psychology, Health and Medicine , pp. 732 - 735
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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