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Hrt: how you see yourself HRT: HOW YOU SEE YOURSELF
Whether you decide to take hormone replacement therapy is a decision you will need to make after talking to your doctor, to your friends who may have tried it, and after weighing the pros and cons. There is little doubt that, taking the population as a whole, the benefits far outweigh the risks, but for you as an individual the balance may be different. It will depend, for example, on how you feel about the risks of breast cancer versus the risks of osteoporosis or heart disease, on how severe your menopausal symptoms are versus the side-effects you get on HRT, and on how you feel about taking hormones. How do you balance an immediate improvement in your quality of life against the long-term risks, especially of breast cancer? How much would you risk the possibility of side-effects now and breast cancer later to gain the many other benefits it brings? As a general rule, we tend to be more worried about taking a treatment that has an increased risk of disease than about failing to take a treatment that could decrease the risks of other conditions.
Oestrogen replacement therapy has been available since the 1940s, and its beneficial effects have been well documented since the 1950s. Yet, over 40 years later, fear and confusion among both doctors and their patients is still preventing the majority of women from receiving - or continuing with - a treatment that can enormously improve so many aspects of their lives.
The eminent British gynaecologist, John Studd, has described oestrogen therapy for post-menopausal women as:
‘probably the most important advance in preventive medicine in the Western world for half a century, with fewer heart attacks, fewer strokes, fewer osteoporotic fractures, less depression and an extra year or two of life.’
This is how some women sum up their own personal experiences of HRT:
‘I know many people feel women should be able to struggle on without it, or use more natural remedies. All I know is that it has made all the difference to how I feel, and to my life in general.’
‘After taking HRT for a few months I decided to stop, because I felt it was unnatural and I didn't think I really needed it. All my symptoms came back and I started to feel quite unwell again, so I went back on it. I feel great now, but I'm not completely happy that I only feel really well if I keep taking die hormones.’
‘I was developing a lot of unexpected aches and pains, and intercourse was uncomfortable and 'dry', and I wasn't really interested in it. My joints feel much more supple since I started taking HRT; and intercourse has become a pleasure again.’
‘I was given an implant after a hysterectomy at the age of 45. Before then I had been suffering from aching joints and tiredness. Now I feel fine. I know that a few women with implants can become 'dependent' on it because it makes them feel so good, but mat hasn't happened to me.’
‘Taking HRT was my doctor's idea, and I feel I'm lucky to have a doctor who believes in it and who has been prepared to keep trying to find the one that suits me best.’
‘I hope it will give me a good quality of life.’
‘I am my old self again.’
‘There is a new vitality about me that I thought had gone forever. I had some side-effects at first, but they soon wore off and my doctor has been tremendously helpful and supportive all the time.’
‘How does it make me feel? In a word - brilliant.’
*74\42\4*
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What your doctor should know; women tell their stories