The Overselling of Hormone Replacement Therapy

Initiative (WHI) was stopped early because women treated with combined estrogen-progestin therapy experienced higher rates of breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, and overall harm1 has rocked women and physicians across the country. But the most important part of this story has received little attention: why did the medical and research community ever believe that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) prevented or treated disease? Not a single controlled trial has ever shown that HRT prevented cardiovascular disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, or wrinkles, nor that it was an effective treatment for depression or incontinence. For decades, physicians have acted as an unwitting volunteer