BOSTON — A new study is calling some of the advice women get from their doctors about hormone replacement therapy into question.According to a study released Tuesday in the journal PLoS Medicine, researchers found that even after the massive Women?s Health Initiative study was cut short in 2002 because the risks of hormone replacement therapy were shown to be great, about half of doctors continued to recommend HRT to some patients.?It was a revolutionary study. I think it’s fair to use that word. It made a huge impact on this country,? said WCVB medical editor Dr. Timothy Johnson. ?Almost overnight when that study came out, women and their doctors stopped using hormone therapy long-term.?Johnson said researchers halted the study when they found that hormone replacement therapy did not lower the risk of heart disease in women but it “might increase the risk and increase the risk of breast cancer.?The same study published in PLoS Medicine determined that the doctors who continued to recommend HRT were more than twice as likely to have received financial support for their research from the pharmaceutical industry.Johnson told NewsCenter 5?s Bianca de la Garza that it appears to be a conflict of interest.?It really does, on the face of it. and it was a very interesting, well done study,? Johnson said. however, he added that now, nearly a decade after the bombshell discovery, most doctors believe it can be safe for some women to take HRT for a short period of time.?These drugs are the most effective treatment for severe menopausal symptoms there are other things you can try but they’re nowhere near as effective,? said Johnson. Dr. Carol Bates, an internist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, sees many women struggling with the symptoms that menopause brings.?Hot flashes happen in most women, 80 percent of women,? Bates said. ?That doesn’t mean that 80 percent of women are disabled by hot flashes, but they’ll experience something.?She said it is now a minority of women who choose to use hormone replacement therapy.?My mantra in general, in treating any effect of menopause, is ‘lowest effective dose,’” Bates said.Johnson offered more direct advice to women considering hormone replacement therapy.?My advice is to look her physician in the eye and say, ?If you were in my shoes, would you, yourself take these drugs?? I think you put them right on the spot,? he said.
Copyright 2011 by TheBostonChannel.com. All rights reserved. this material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.