Hormone Replacement Therapy

Hormone replacement therapy, also known as menopausal hormone therapy or postmenopausal hormone therapy, is a form of hormone therapy used to treat symptoms associated with female menopause. Effects of menopause can include hot flashes, accelerated skin aging, vaginal dryness, decreased muscle mass, and complications such as osteoporosis, sexual dysfunction and vaginal atrophy, mostly caused by the low levels of female sex hormones such as estrogens that occur during menopause. Estrogens and progestogens are the main hormone drugs used, with progestogen specifically added to estrogen regimens, unless the uterus has been removed, to avoid the increased risk of endometrial cancer that unopposed estrogen therapy causes, and androgens such as testosterone are sometimes used as well. The Women's Health Initiative, an ongoing study of over twenty seven thousand women that began in 1991, has found in its most recent analyses that when hormone replacement therapy is started within ten years of menopause it reduces all cause mortality and the risks of coronary disease, osteoporosis and dementia, though after ten years the beneficial effects on mortality and coronary heart disease are no longer apparent, and there is a decreased risk of hip and vertebral fractures alongside an increased risk of venous thromboembolism when the therapy is taken orally. Current United States Food and Drug Administration indications for its use include short term treatment of menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes or vaginal atrophy, and prevention of osteoporosis.