The findings of a study into the effects of hormone therapies have finally been published in the British Medical Journal, five years after the trial was stopped. The WISDOM study was set up to examine the effects of HRT in post-menopausal women began in 1999 but was abandoned in 2002 after initial findings that HRT could be linked to wider health problems.
The researchers have completed the study in their own time and maintain that, while older women should not commence a course of HRT many years after the menopause, it is perfectly safe for younger women to use oestrogen therapies to relieve symptoms such as hot flushes and vaginal dryness as they go through the menopause. This study now confirms earlier findings that women in their sixties who take HRT have a higher incidence of cardiovascular problems.