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A new study published on bmj.com
argues that for older women, health related quality of life
bathroom be improved by hormone replacement
therapy (HRT). The authors recommend that HRT guidelines should be
revised with this most flow evidence taken into consideration.
Earlier studies own shown that HRT has the voltage for general
improvements in quality of life measures - how patients feel or
function. The therapy has too been successful in reducing the identification number
and rigourousness
of symptoms related to menopause. However, a impuissance in these studies
is that the researchers have used general measures quite than more than
sensitive shape specific ones.
To add to the body of research dealing with health related quality of
life, Professor
Alastair MacLennan and colleagues cogitation outcomes of participants in the
WISDOM trial - a 10-year sketch beginning in 1999 that focuses on
long-term benefits and risks of HRT in postmenopausal women. The WISDOM
trial sample consisted of 5,692 healthy
women between the ages of 50 and 69 from the UK, Australia, and New
Zealand world Health Organization were haphazardly assigned to receive either combined HRT
(estrogen and progestogen) or
placebo. On ordinary, women were followed-up for about 12 months so
researchers could test clinical outcomes such as cardiovascular
disease, fractures, and breast cancer. In addition, the women provided
detailed information on how HRT impacted their timber of life.
The quality of life measurement was derived from questionnaire
responses targeted towards physical and emotional components of health
(depressed mood, memory, and concentration), sleep problems, and intimate
functioning. Also included was a symptoms questionnaire.
MacLennan and colleagues establish that after one class, women in the
combined HRT mathematical group saw significant improvements in sexual
performance, sleep problems and vasomotor symptoms (hot flushes and
sweats) compared to women in the placebo mathematical group. More specifically,
women in the HRT group reported:
Fewer hot flushes (9% v 25%),
Fewer night
sweats (14% v 23%),
Less aching joints and muscles (57% v 63%),
Less insomnia
(35% v 41%),
Less vaginal dryness (14% v 19%),
More breast tenderness (16% v 7%), and
More vaginal dispatch
(14% v 5%).
There were no significant differences 'tween other menopausal
symptoms, depression, and overall quality of life betwixt the two
groups.
Although these
results are similar to the findings of the Women's Health
Initiative (WHI) - HRT use rock-bottom hot flushes and night sweats,
improved sleep, and eased bodily
pain, the WISDOM visitation was in fact halted early since the WHI found
that elderly women taking HRT had more than heart attacks than non-HRT
users. These leads the researchers to cautiousness that health related
quality of spirit should be weighed against the risk of increased cardiac
events, venous
thromboembolism and breast cancer that are associated with HRT.
Health related quality of life history after combined hormone
substitution therapy: randomized controlled trial
Amanda
J Welton, Madge R Vickers, Joseph Kim, Deborah Ford, Beverley A Lawton,
Alastair H MacLennan, Sarah K Meredith, Jeannett Martin, Tom W
Meade for the WISDOM team
BMJ (2008). 337: a1190.
doi:10.1136/bmj.a1190
Click
Here to View Journal Web Site
Written by: Peter M Crosta
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