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The backlash against the WHI: myths and facts about menopause hormone therapy.

Article Excerpt
Since the initial results of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) were published last July, defenders of menopause hormone therapy have claimed that the study's conclusions are faulty because of flaws in the design of the trial, This backlash is based on a number of myths being propagated by spokespeople for Wyeth, which manufactures Premarin, as well as by other hormone defenders in the ob-gyn community.

The fundamental theme throughout this misinformation is that the women in the WIll were not "normal" and did not represent typical patients. In response, Adriane Fugh-Berman, MD, an assistant professor at George Washington University School of Medicine, and Tony Scialli, MD, a professor at Georgetown University Hospital, enumerate the most common backlash myths about the WHI findings and provide the facts refuting them.

Myth: The women in the WHI were too old. There were too few women who were close to the onset of menopause/in their 50s.

Fact: A third of the women--a total of 5,702--were in their 50s. In fact, the WHI is the largest randomized controlled trial ever done of women in this age group.

Myth: Women enrolled in the WHI weren't having menopausal symptoms, so they were different from normal women of their age.

Fact: This argument implies that women who are near or at menopause who don't experience hot flashes are not normal. In fact, many women either have no menopausal symptoms or experience symptoms that aren't bothersome. Even among women taking hormones, only a minority say they started taking them because of hot flashes....

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