Demand for prescription hormones nosedives

Main Category: Stroke
Article Date: 07 Jan 2004 - 0:00 PST

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Since a study showed hormone therapy increased the risk of breast cancer (and heart disease and other illnesses), prescription for hormone supplements have dropped by 38% in the USA.

Estimates suggest that prescriptions for the year 2003 were 57 million (USA), in 2001 they were 91 million. Of the 6 million American women who used the combined pills in 2001, 14,500 had heart disease, breast cancer, stroke and blood clots as a result of taking estrogen-progestin (that year).

The following year the number of similar cases (heart disease, breast cancer, stroke and blood clots) fell to 6,500 (drop of 56%).

'A very large population uses these drugs and has been positively affected by the changes in practice that have come about,' said Dr. Randall Stafford of Stanford University's Prevention Research Center, an author of the new analysis.

Some doctors say that hormones are still appropriate for some women. They say that the health risks are relatively small. Menopause symptoms such as hot flashes (flushes in UK), vaginal dryness and thinning bones can be relieved by hormone therapy.

Most studies which show a slight risk do not result in such a huge change in prescribing figures. However, in the case of HRT it was probably due to the massive publicity.

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