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HRT 'improves' health of older women

22/08/2008

A new report has said that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can improve the health-related quality of life of older women.

The study in the British Medical Journal published today looked at the long term benefits and risks of HRT in postmenopausal women over ten years.

In the past research has focused on the quality of life benefits, such as the way patients feel or function, not the health benefits.

Scientists found during the ten-year study that women taking HRT experienced significant improvements in sexual functioning, sleep problems and vasomotor symptoms (hot flushes and sweats) compared to those participants placed in the placebo group.

Those in the HRT group reported significantly fewer problematic symptoms that those not in the group.

For example, only nine per cent reported hot flushes, compared to 25 per cent, and 14 per cent reported night sweats, compared to 23 per cent.

The findings correspond with those in a Women's Health Initiative study which showed that after a year women who started taking combined HRT many years after the menopause experienced reduced hot flushes and night sweats, improved sleep, and less bodily pain.