Complications (1)
- Weight gain after menopause
Lifestyle and home remedies (4)
- Diabetes and menopause: A twin challenge
- Fitness tips for menopause: Why physical activity matters
- Quit smoking: Proven strategies to help you quit
- see all in Lifestyle and home remedies
Risk factors (1)
- Weight gain after menopause
Symptoms (1)
- Vaginal atrophy
Treatments and drugs (2)
- Hormone therapy: Is it right for you?
- Hormone replacement therapy and your heart
Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
continued:
Hormone therapy: Is it right for you?
Who should avoid hormone therapy?
Women with breast cancer, heart disease or a history of blood clots should not take hormone therapy for relief of menopause symptoms. Women who don't suffer from menopause symptoms should not take hormone therapy for preventing memory loss or strokes. Instead, talk to your doctor about other medications you can take or lifestyle changes you can make for long-term protection from these conditions.
If you take hormone replacement therapy, how can you protect yourself from the added risks?
Recent analysis of the WHI data and other trials suggests that there are several ways to reduce the inherent risks of hormone therapy. Talk to your doctor about these strategies:
- Time it right. The risk of hormone therapy causing heart disease is not significantly raised in women under age 60. In fact, some studies suggest that estrogen may protect the heart when taken early in your menopausal years.
- Minimize the amount of medication you take. Use the lowest effective dose for the shortest amount of time needed to treat symptoms. On the other hand, don't be scared to continue treatment as long as you have debilitating menopausal symptoms.
-
Find the best delivery method for you. You can take estrogen in the form of a pill, patch, gel, vaginal cream or slow-releasing suppository or ring that you place in your vagina. If you experience only isolated vaginal symptoms, estrogen in a vaginal cream, tablet or ring is usually a better choice than a pill or a skin patch. That's because estrogen applied directly to your vagina is more effective at a lower dose than is estrogen given in pill or skin patch form.
If you haven't had a hysterectomy and are using oral or skin patch hormone therapy, you will also need progestin, which is available in a pill, combination pill, vaginal gel, intrauterine device or combination skin patch. Your doctor can help you find the delivery method that offers the most benefits and convenience with the least risks and cost.
What can you do if you can't take hormone therapy?
Women shouldn't have to suffer through menopause. You may be able to manage your menopausal symptoms by making healthy lifestyle choices. In fact, your doctor may recommend that you change your exercise or eating habits before you try medication. If lifestyle changes aren't providing enough relief from bothersome symptoms, there are many medications besides hormone therapy to relieve discomfort.
The bottom line: Hormone therapy isn't all good or all bad
Clearly, hormone replacement therapy hasn't lived up to its billing as a panacea for age-related disease. But the news isn't all doom and gloom either.
The only way to determine if hormone replacement therapy is the best treatment for you is to talk to your doctor about your individual symptoms and health risks. Be sure to keep the conversation going throughout your menopausal years. As researchers learn more about hormone therapy and other menopausal treatments, recommendations may change. Review your current treatments with your doctor on a regular basis to make sure they're still your best option.
Previous page(2 of 2)
