Cancer risk or miracle cure? The truth about HRT

•  Anna Magee -
6 FEBRUARY 2016

This year I turn 47 - the age that my mum had her menopause. She’s already told me about the hot flushes, night sweats and vaginal dryness I have to look forward to. But it wasn’t until I read Allison Pearson’s account in this paper of her own menopausal brain fog, anxiety, low mood, overactive bladder, zero libido and extreme irritability that I became utterly terrified. 

I have deadlines, a husband, a life. I need a working brain and bladder, and sex. For Pearson, it was hormone replacement therapy (HRT) that made her symptoms virtually disappear. But, like most women, I’d heard about the increased risk of cancer and heart disease.

Last November, the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE – the body that recommends prescribing and treatment in the UK) issued guidelines on menopause, encouraging doctors to offer patients HRT while making clear the risks involved. 

Have all the studies been wrong? Or would I be risking my health with HRT? 

I set out to discover the truth. Each year, 1.5 million British women experience menopausal symptoms, but only one in 10 are prescribed HRT, largely because in the last decade doctors have become reluctant to offer it because of the perceived risks.

Indeed, according to NHS figures, prescribing rates for HRT have plummeted – in 2000 there were around 6 million prescriptions; by 2014 that figure was just over two million.

Yet in her article, Allison Pearson controversially stated: ‘I’d rather have 20 good years taking hormones and run a higher risk of cancer than live to a great age feeling anxious and pulverised by tiredness.’ She was inundated withreaders recounting their own fears about HRT, their GPs’ reluctance to prescribe it and, once finally on it, how they saw their symptoms quickly dissipate. 

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