HRT not associated with early mortality, notes long-term study

A long-term study, recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, has confirmed that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is not associated with early mortality as originally thought.

The research, led by JoAnn Manson, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, compared HRT with placebo taken over a five to seven-year period and evaluated the mortality incidences with a follow up of 18 years. This is a follow up using the Women’s Health Initiative data, which were two parallel randomised US studies published the 2000s. In the initial studies, it was found that women taking HRT had an increased risk of heart disease and breast cancer, although these were not generally focused on all-cause and cause-specific mortality.

However, this new research, in which the women involved in the previous trials were followed for nearly two decades, has found that there was no significant difference in the rates of all-cause mortality between the treated and non-treated groups.

“This is good news for women,” said Manson, speaking to The Times. “This fundamentally provides reassurance for women during the menopause who are seeking hormone therapy to manage bothersome and disturbing symptoms such as hot flushes and night sweats.”