Hormone replacement therapy (HRT)

Most all women were given estrogen replacement until 1991. Then the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) which was a massive randomized controlled trial launched by the National Institutes of Health Showed increased risk of breast cancer and blood clotting disorders strokes and heart attacks from estrogen treatment. After that estrogen replacement was highly controversial and considered too risky for treatment for most women.  At that time we started using depression medications like venlafaxine which were, epinephrine and norepinephrine to help dull the vasospasm symptoms of menopausal hot flashes.However there have always been some women who just felt that estrogen was the only treatment that really worked for them. Nowadays we have new medications which are especially targeted to the hypothalamus to treat menopausal hot flashes symptoms With targeted specificity. We have also realized that the risk of estrogen was somewhat over played even though the risk is not Zero. We have found that estrogen can increase the rate of breast cancer growth but does not cause breast cancer and does not seem to be changed outcomes on breast cancer treatment. We have also found that estrogen can increase risk of blood clotting but this risk can be minimized by using estrogen patches and if estrogen started soon after menopause begins And the clotting risk is minimized. However definitely estrogen is not beneficial for women who have immediate family members with breast cancer or have family members with blood clotting disorders.