The benefits of menopausal hormone therapy may outweigh the risks if you start treatment before age 60 or within 10 years of menopause. Hormone therapy (HT) may be safe for women over 65, according to a recent study published in Menopause, the journal of The Menopause Society. Hormone replacement therapy improves the quality of life and extends the lives of many older women, whether they start menopause or much later. Hormone replacement therapy counseling should be provided to all postmenopausal women.
Patients should be warned that estrogen will reduce the chances of death and disability due to cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis. Those who have low bone density or are at risk of cardiovascular diseases, such as smoking and high blood pressure, will benefit more than those who don't. Older age may predispose women to the carcinogenic potential of estrogen. However, this must be placed in a statistical perspective for the patient, since the benefits of estrogen clearly outweigh the risks. In evaluating her personal history and attitudes, the doctor must help the patient decide if the potential benefit outweighs the risk or inconvenience of side effects.
While the available data reveal the general advantages of estrogen replacement, there is a need to further study the optimal dose, the type of estrogen, the time of initiation and the duration of treatment in the geriatric population. That's because you'll usually find that menopausal symptoms improve as you age, so you're less likely to need hormone therapy to ease symptoms. Meanwhile, the risk of breast cancer increases the longer you take combined hormone replacement therapy. Your symptoms may come back for a short time when you stop taking it.
This is less likely to happen if you reduce your dose gradually. Your healthcare professional can help you choose the best way to take these hormones based on what works for you and has the least number of side effects. Hormone therapy for menopause has also been shown to prevent bone loss and reduce bone fractures after menopause. If you're already taking menopausal hormone therapy, check with your healthcare professional regularly to re-evaluate your need for treatment.
If you want to continue taking hormone therapy or start taking it after age 60, your GP may recommend taking a low dose and using patches or gel instead of tablets to reduce your risk. Talk to your healthcare professional about these risks when deciding if menopausal hormone therapy might be an option for you. You can take hormone replacement therapy (HRT) if you have menopausal symptoms, including during perimenopause and after your periods stop (postmenopause). To find out if menopausal hormone therapy is a good option for you, talk to your health professional about your symptoms and health risks.
If you have a premature menopause (before age 40) or an early menopause (before age 4), it's especially important to take HRT or the combination pill. It is taken to replace the estrogen that the body stops producing after menopause, which is when periods stop for good. The objective of this study was to determine the use of hormone therapy in Swedish women aged 80 and over. If you take hormonal contraceptives, such as the combination pill or the progestogen-only pill, you may not know when you reach perimenopause or menopause, because birth control can affect your periods. As researchers learn more about menopausal hormone therapy and other menopausal treatments, recommendations may change.
You should also review the use of hormone therapy regularly with your healthcare professional to ensure that the benefits continue to outweigh the risks. The average duration of hormone therapy use among new users was 257 days (25th to 75th percentiles, 611-120 days).
