Facing Provider Misconceptions Towards the Use of Hormone Therapy in 2020

Excerpt

The New England Journal of Medicine recently published a clinical vignette highlighting the treatment of menopause by Dr. JoAnn V. Pinkerton, former North American Menopause Society (NAMS) executive director and president.¹ The vignette highlighted that hormone therapy (HT) should be considered first-line therapy for vasomotor symptom (VMS) treatment in women who are less than ten years from menopause and who have no known contraindications to HT use. However, what still needs to be addressed is the need for dialogue surrounding the misconceptions that physicians and laywomen have about hormone therapy. Since 2002 when results of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) first hit the front pages of newspapers, the evening news, and physicians’ inboxes, a deep-rooted idea has persisted throughout US culture that estrogen is dangerous and harmful despite significant evidence to the contrary.^2‐4 …