The North American Menopause Society has issues new guidelines on the use of hormone therapy in postmenopausal women. These new guidelines were published online February 12, 2010 and will be published in the March/April issue of the journal Menopause.

According to the new guidelines, the therapeutic benefit-risk ratio for menopausal hormone therapy is favorable for women who start hormone therapy close to the time of menopause, but decreases in older women and with increasing time since onset of menopause. The guidelines are based in part of recent data supporting the initiation of hormone therapy around the time of menopause to treat menopause-related symptoms and/or to reduce the risk of osteoporosis and bone fractures. However, the new guidelines do not support the use of hormone therapy for the purpose of preventing dementia or cognitive impairment.

The hormone therapy guidelines were developed by an advisory panel of 17 physicians and researchers with special expertise in hormone therapy. The updated guidelines include new section on the use of hormone therapy in women with ovarian and lung cancer. Due to the controversy surrounding the use of hormone therapy in postmenopausal women, the goal of these guidelines was to update physicians and patients about the current North American Menopause Society’s recommendations for menopausal hormone therapy.

Source:

Menopause, published ahead-of-print 12 February 2010.