Older Women Should Not Use Hormone Therapy To Prevent Chronic Conditions

Reuters reports the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), a government-backed panel of experts, has concluded that “postmenopausal women should not use hormone therapy to prevent chronic medical conditions, because the risk of significant side effects outweighs the unclear evidence of a benefit.” The experts recommend, instead of hormone therapy, “a healthy diet and physical activity for the prevention of cardiovascular disease; daily low-dose aspirin to decrease the risk of colon cancer and cardiovascular disease in certain women; and medications like tamoxifen and raloxifene to decrease the risk of breast cancer in certain high-risk women.” The recommendation statement and a separate report documenting the evidence supporting the recommendations were published online in the Journal of the American Medical Association. HealthDay notes that “the task force first recommended against hormone replacement therapy for postmenopausal women in 2012,” and that “it updates its recommendations every four years to