Menopause news

HRT for osteoporosis-yes or no?

2004

Yet more confusion surrounding the use of HRT follows announcements by the Committee on Safety of Medicines (CSM) and by the European Medicines Evaluation Agency (EMEA). The CSM statement, based on results from the Women's Health Initiative and Million Women Study, recommends HRT use for control of menopausal symptoms, but states that HRT should not be used as first-line therapy for prevention of osteoporosis in women over 50. Similarly, the EMEA recommended that the risk/benefit balance of HRT does not justify its use as first-line therapy for prevention of osteoporosis in women.

These statements have been strongly criticised by both the British Menopause Society
www.the-bms.org/news.html and by the International Menopause Society www.imsociety.org/pages/news.html
Both societies reiterate the fact that HRT has been clearly shown to be a very effective, inexpensive therapy for preventing osteoporosis and that in early postmenopausal women, alternative therapies have not been shown to be as beneficial.
Overall, HRT still has a very important role for both menopausal symptom control and osteoporosis prevention and treatment and there is no need to change prescribing of HRT for these indications.

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