When Should Hormone Therapy Be Discontinued?

See also:

Menopausal Hormone Therapy: Where Do We Go from Here?

When Should Hormone Therapy Be Continued?

The Prempro arm of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) was halted early because the Data Safety and Monitoring Committee determined that the overall risks of treatment outweighed the benefits and that continuation of the trial was no longer justified (Journal Watch Women's Health Aug 7 2002). Continued long-term use of Prempro is therefore ill advised. Other combination therapies, or lower doses of this particular estrogen-progestin formulation, may not have the same risk/benefit ratio, but the onus is on those who prescribe these therapies to demonstrate scientifically that they are safe and effective. The estrogen-alone arm of the WHI co…