As a treatment for menopause the data on hormone therapy is unequivocal researchers call estrogen and progestin a first-line therapy for common and debilitating symptoms like hot flashes night sweats mood swings and pain during sex hormones reduce a woman's risk of osteoporosis urinary tract infections and type 2 diabetes and top medical.
Organizations say for most women under 60 the benefits of hormones outweigh the risks still surveys show more than half of menopausal women won't use hormone therapy scared off say Advocates by an nih-funded study called The Women's Health Initiative or Whi from two.
Decades ago that they say dramatically overstated the risk of hormones that study really misrepresented some of the facts Dr Sharon Malone is a veteran OB GYN and chief medical advisor for Alloy Women's Health a leading menopause Healthcare company she says the Whi study launched in the early 90s looked at hormone therapy and post-menopausal.
Women over 60. in 2002 researchers abruptly halted the study citing evidence that older women who took hormones had a slightly raised risk of serious diseases but the message to the public was far more alarming take this 2002 segment with the Whi researcher on The Today Show you actually found heart disease the risk increased by 29 percent.
The risk of stroke folks increased by 41 percent invasive breast cancer risk increased by 26 percent so what are we telling women the 6 million women in America today who are taking HRT not only the 6 million but all those women who every day as they reach menopause have to make a choice of what they're going to do it was horrible there were.
Headlines in the New York Times about the horrors of hormone replacement therapy patients came in and they felt betrayed can be a dangerous spot but Dr Malone says those risks were vastly overblown and didn't apply at all to women under 60 who were still in menopause all of the things that they said the breast cancer the stroke none.
Of those things applied to younger women it only applied to women who were older what should NIH do to correct the record what NIH should do is hold another press conference if need be the most common reason why women avoid hormone replacement therapy it is is the fear of breast cancer so we went to the NIH for answers in some women with Dr Janine.
Austin Clayton is director of their office of research on women's health the change that women today want is they say look at 20 years ago NIH left us thinking that hormones were bad NIH should bring us up to date on the New Evidence about hormone therapy is that going to happen there's a lot of new evidence discussions like we're having.
Are the right way for us to get to as many women as possible all the women who are on hormones at that time were taken off it left women thinking that if they took hormones they'd get breast cancer heart disease or all of the above and that's wrong so it answered a question that was designed to answer but it did leave other questions unanswered I.
Understand that led to fears about menopausal hormone therapy we now know for women close to the menopausal transition that more normal therapy can be safe and effective for relieving menopausal symptoms the benefits can outweigh the risks she says the NIH never meant to mislead women about hormone safety but go to their website.
On hormone therapy and you'll still find a list of studies focused on the health risks not the benefits does this need to be updated though you think happy to review that and see if there's new information that needs to be added we want women to have information that's current to make their treatments decisions.
so if you have certain pre-existing conditions including a history of breast cancer research shows hormones May raise your risk for some diseases the NIH recommends women go to third-party websites like my mentalplan.org where you can enter your health information and then get expert advice on whether.
Hormones are a good fit for you and as always you should consult your doctor you can go to the menopause society and they can connect you to a doctor who is really up to date on the newest findings on this it was great how you pressed the woman from NIH trying to correct the record there I can't believe for all these years women have been like wait.
Now it's now it's not true very astonishing that this still persists I mean how long ago Maria was it that people recognize that this study had sort of been overblown and misinterpreted and applied to a larger population that it didn't need it yeah there's a lot of heat around it right now there's a lot of heat around.
Menopause a lot of new companies coming up there's actually a new non hormonal treatment that was just announced called viosa just the other day and women can go and talk to their doctors about that it's not available right yet but it should be in the next couple of weeks it's expensive but it's uh it's a something that's coming out so there's a.
Lot of heat around this discussion still women want NIH to do a big correct they're not going to get that but they'll get the answers that you just got there you almost got it you try that's you almost got it Maria yeah all right and you guys this is a topic everybody's talking about so if you want more information on menopause and its.
Treatments go to our website today.com health hey thanks for watching don't miss the Today show every weekday at 11 A.M Eastern 8 Pacific on our streaming Channel today all day to watch head to today.com all day or click the link right here
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I private taken Bioidentical Estrogen vaginal cream and bioidentical Progesterone for years, without them I’d were in a Looney bin. Suzanne Somers and enlightened Ob-Gyn specialist and Compounding Pharmacist aid me set educated selections on Females health.
The NIH are presumably in bed with huge pharma indulge in the FDA is