An article in today’s Los Angeles Times reports that women who begin to take hormone replacement therapy (HRT) at the onset of menopause (often called peri-menopause), around age 50 or so, and take it for five years or less, run fewer risks than benefits, including relief from hot flashes and pain during sex, as well as reduced bone fractures.
ACSH reported similar findings in a 2008 paper written by Drs. Carol Tavris and Av Bluming. They also refuted results from the 2003 Women’s Health Initiative study, which were based on women who used HRT in their 60s, and has little to do with how the treatment would affect younger women.