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Government Says Hormone Replacement Therapies Add to Risk of Disease

Aired July 09, 2002 - 14:21   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Today some confusing information for any woman who relies on hormone replacements. Government scientists are warning the therapy that's been prescribed for you may be too risky. CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here with a closer look at these findings. A bit disturbing, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, it is a bit disturbing because 6 million women take what's called combined-hormone replacement therapy. That's a combination of estrogen and progestin, and the bottom line of this study is that when women take this therapy, it appears to cause heart disease, blood clots, breast cancer and strokes.

Let's talk a little bit about this study. There were 16,000 women. Eight thousand of the women took a placebo and 8,000 of them took the combined hormone replacement therapy. What happened is that for every 10,000 women taking the hormones, in one year 31 become ill with either these four diseases that I mentioned -- heart disease, breast cancer, strokes and blood clots. In other words, that's 31 additional women on top of the number that you would expect just in that period of time would get the disease.

So 31 cases that appear to be caused by the hormones, so the bottom line is, well, what are women supposed to do now? What are these 6 million supposed to do? Well, what they're supposed to do is talk to their doctor. If the symptoms of menopause are making their life truly, truly difficult, they might decide that it's worth the risk.

Those numbers not extremely high. As a matter of fact, they're relatively small. But if women are taking it because the symptoms are kind of bad but not terrible, or because they thought that, in fact, hormone replacement therapy would prevent them from getting heart disease, which is what doctors used to think, then they need to rethink their decision.

So Kyra, rarely does a study make 6 million people have to rethink the drugs that they're taking -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Wow. What about just for short-term? Just to get past that hump in that first year?

COHEN: Right, it would be nice if we could say, well, you know what, it appears you just take it for a year while you have those terrible symptoms or -- they're not terrible for everyone -- but if you have terrible symptoms during that first year -- but the study found that even when women took hormone replacement therapy for just one year, it increased their risk of heart disease.

PHILLIPS: What about alternatives? Soy, herbal remedies?

COHEN: There are some herbal remedies out there, not all of them are as thoroughly studied as some people would like, but there are some herbal remedies that people get some relief from. The remedy that seems -- the alternative remedy that seems to have the most science behind it is soy.

Women in countries where they eat a lot of soy tend to have fewer symptoms than women in this country, where they don't eat a lot of soy. So some women swear by soy supplements or getting a lot of so in diet. It seems to help their symptoms greatly, and it means you don't have to take this combined hormone replacement therapy.

PHILLIPS: Elizabeth Cohen, thank you.

COHEN: Thanks.

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