Hormones on Trial: Latest WHI Findings Expose More Manufacturer Myths

Last summer the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) shattered millions of women's illusions about hormone replacement therapy's long-term effects, by revealing that hormones increase women's risk for breast cancer, stroke, blood clots and heart attacks. In March, the WHI shattered any remaining illusions when it announced that hormone therapy's alleged short-term benefits— relief from depression and memory loss, and greater vitality and sexual satisfaction— are largely bunk as well.

Data released March 17 showed that combined hormone therapy (estrogen plus progestin) had no clinically meaningful effect on the general health, vitality, mental health, depressive symptoms or sexual satisfaction of the more than 16,000 women participating in the WHI. The only exception was a small group of women ages 50 to 54 with moderate to severe hot flashes. Hormones somewhat diminished hot flashes and night sweats for this group, but they were no better than placebos in other qualityof- life measures.

An editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine, where these results are published, estimates that between 10 and 20 percent of women experience "very distressing" vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes). The editorial recommends that "Women with vasomotor symptoms must weigh risks associated with treatment against the benefit of relief."

As long-time members know, the Network for many years has challenged manufacturers' promotion of estrogen as a wonder drug. With its latest findings, the WHI has proven that the long-term risks of hormone replacement therapy are life-threatening, and the short-term benefits are nowhere near what women and their health care providers have been led to believe. In a statement issued the day the findings were released, Cindy Pearson, the Network's executive director, said, "These companies deserve to go to the advertising hall of fame for their unparalleled success at convincing generation after generation of women that they would and did improve their health and their lives by taking hormones. And they deserve to go to the research hall of shame for putting those same women's lives at risk with unethical medical experimentation of an unprecedented scale."

The full results of the WHl's findings on hormones and their effect on quality of life are published in the May 8 New England Journal of Medicine.