# Hormone replacement therapy (and stopping it)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hormone-replacement-therapy-and-stopping-it/798558>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [October 11, 2017, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hormone-replacement-therapy-and-stopping-it/798558 "2017-10-11T12:23:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2017, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hormone-replacement-therapy-and-stopping-it/798558/1 "2017-10-11T12:23:07Z")

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Not seeking specific medical advice, but the wife’s doctor recently stopped her HRT (both estrogen and progesterone). To hear the doctor talk you’d think HRT was a relic of medieval medicine, and that while it may have been quite common years ago for doctors to start menopausal women on HRT, it’s the exception these days.

Any women here ever experience ‘severe’ menopausal symptoms for a significant period of time and _not_ gone on hormones, you know, just grit it out?

Has anyone else heard that HRT is generally on the outs, or is this just one doctor talking?

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**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2017, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hormone-replacement-therapy-and-stopping-it/798558/2 "2017-10-11T12:37:41Z")

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Here’s the current mainstream medicine opinion on HRT, from UpToDate:

> [@](#):
>
> We consider the initiation of menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) to be a safe option for healthy, symptomatic women who are within 10 years of menopause or younger than age 60 years and who do not have contraindications to MHT (such as a history of breast cancer, coronary heart disease [CHD], a previous venous thromboembolic event or stroke, or active liver disease. Estrogen-progestin therapy should be used for women with a uterus and unopposed estrogen for those posthysterectomy. For women with vaginal atrophy symptoms only, we suggest vaginal estrogen
> 
> MHT is effective for the treatment of menopausal hot flashes and vaginal atrophy caused by hypoestrogenism. However, it is currently not recommended for the prevention of chronic disease such as prevention of cardiovascular or bone disease.

So it’s still a thing, but only for those women for whom it appears the benefits outweigh risks. Because there are risks.

And women do age out of the benefit category. Perhaps that’s what happened with your wife?