A study done in Estonia seems to show hormone therapy does not significantly improve the quality of life of postmenopausal women. The interesting thing is that this study was performed on women who have, and don’t have, hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms.
Women who experienced hot flashes and night-sweats reported an improved general quality of life. I am not sure what part of this should be a surprise, but the study looked at more than just that. The study investigated the effect of hormone therapy on the use of health care services, illnesses and well-being. The reason why this research trial was conducted in Estonia is because the use of hormone therapy in that country is still rare, while in Finland (the country conducting the study) looks very favorably upon hormone therapy, and prescribes it abundantly to menopausal women.
Estonian women between the ages of 50 and 64 were given the research medication for two to five years. The Finish research group came across interesting results: the hormone therapy led to a larger number of doctor visits and higher treatment costs. The number of lower abdominal ultrasounds and electrocardiograms shot up in the group using hormone therapy, compared to the control group who was given a placebo. The women on hormone therapy showed more cardiovascular disease, cancer and cerebral circulatory disease compared to the control group, although the differences were not statistically significant. This means that a difference was observed, but mathematically a connection between hormone therapy and these health problems cannot be proven.
Surprisingly, there was no difference in the number of breast or gynaecological surgeries, mammography or bone density measurements, which to me sounds almost counter intuitive. The study also did not find a difference in depression, sleep disorders, fatigue, bloating or dizziness.
Not surprisingly; women on hormone therapy experienced less hot flashes, and less bone fractures.
This trial was the first randomised controlled long-term hormone therapy trial performed in Europe. It was also the first time a study investigated the health care costs resulting from hormone therapy, which could be economically significant for health care cost policies.
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