After a three-day conference at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan, experts conclude that hormone replacement treatment (HRT) greatly improves the lives of women tolerating menopausal symptoms such as fatigue, hot flashes, night sweats, insomnia, depression, skin changes, and urogenital atrophy.
They also decided that HRT reduces the risks of cardiovascular disease, colon cancer, and osteoporosis, but increases the likelihood of developing breast cancer.
The chair of obstetrics and gynecology and the Medical University of South Carolina, noted that over 20 million women take HRT, but that “less than one third of eligible women take replacement therapy and as many as one out of two will discontinue its use within a year.”