Management of menorrhagia: an audit of practices in the Anglia menorrhagia education study

Menorrhagia is an important healthcare problem for women.1 In primary care menorrhagia is a considerable burden on resources and may ultimately lead to referral and surgery. 1 2 There is a gap between research and practice, with best evidence not uniformly applied. The Anglia menorrhagia education study, a randomised controlled trial of an educational package delivered in 100 general practices in East Anglia between November 1995 and March 1996, evaluated whether education could change doctors' management.3 Practices reported individual cases, and behaviour of practices receiving education was compared with that in control practices. There were differences in the numbers reported from practices, raising concerns that underreporting might impact on the result. The publication of an Effective Health Care bulletin on menorrhagia coinciding with the start of the study was also a potential confounder.4 Furthermore, the reported data allowed comparison only between the two study groups and did not allow assessment …