Entering a new cycle

TEN years ago, three times more women attended Dublin Well Woman to talk about menopause than do today.

Medical director Dr Shirley McQuade attributes the reduction to two studies — the 2002 Women’s Health Initiative, (US) and the 2003 Million Women Study (UK). These linked HRT to increased risk of breast cancer and stroke. “At that point, a lot of women came off HRT. Doctors were reluctant to prescribe it,” says McQuade.

The knee-jerk reaction was in response to flawed reporting of the studies. “The British study didn’t ask women when, or for how long, they’d been on HRT. The US study included women who’d started using it when they were 60 or 70. When they looked at women who started HRT when they were peri-menopausal, they found these younger women didn’t have the same increased risks.