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The decision to take HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) is personal one therefore being well informed about the advantages and disadvantages of taking HRT and weighing this up against your own personal experience with the menopause is a decision that only you can take.

There are many different brands of HRT, it can also be taken in pill form and as skin patches. Each has its own set of side effects and risks. This article briefly examines HRT and discusses the various types of HRT available.

Hormone Replacement Therapy works to counteract the oestrogen deficiency that occurs in women as a result of the menopause. That said, the name itself is slightly misleading as it does not fully restore the balance of hormones back to a post-menopausal woman and returning her to a pre-menopausal state.

Oestreogen replacement can greatly help women who are experiencing the problems related to menopause such as hot flushes, excessive sweating, vaginal dryness and bladder problems. Although HRT has been subscribed in the main as a treatment for the symptoms of menopause, increasingly it is being utilized as a preventative therapy. This is because many research studies show that oestrogen deficiency in post-menopausal women can lead to many serious problems such as osteoporosis and arterial diseases (which result in an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes). Therefore, HRT, which provides the body with oestrogen can only be a good thing. If HRT is taken for a minimum of five years, this will greatly reduce the risk of osteoporosis and death from strokes and heart disease.

In reality, however, there are still are vast majority of women who will decide not to take HRT and as many doctors who will not prescribe it. There are two reasons for this:

1) the fear that HRT causes cancer
2) the side-effects it causes such as breast tenderness, nausea and the return of monthly periods, in some types of treatment

It must be stressed once again that the term hormone replacement therapy is misleading as HRT does not recreate the pre-menopausal state. There is just no way that a treatment could replicate the complexity of the hormonal changes that constitute the normal menstrual cycle.

When starting a course of HRT, it is important to be aware that it can take up to three months of taking this treatment before one sees the benefits. Unfortunately, its more likely that the side-effects will appear long before the postive effects.

It is therefore vital to realise that taking HRT has a settling in period but this will settle down after the few couple of months of treatment.

If you find yourself suffering from severe side effects you should consult your medical practitioner as soon as possible. He may suggest one of the following:

- to reduce the oestrogen or progestogen dose
- reduce the duration of the progestogen therapy each month
- change to a different progestogen
- undergo a hysterectomy.


Please click on More About Hormone Replacement Therapy for a longer description.