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With so many treatments to choose from, pinning down the right HRT for you can be a bit daunting. We’re here to make it a whole lot simpler.
Talk to our experts to get personalised HRT recommendations. Once you’ve started treatment, we’ll check in with you regularly to see how you’re getting on with your medication.
HRT, or hormone replacement therapy, is treatment that women take to help relieve menopausal symptoms like night sweats, hot flushes, vaginal dryness, poor sleep, brain fog, mood swings and lower sex drive.
How long you take it for can vary; many women take it for a year or two but some can take it for much longer than this. It’s a very individual thing. Certain types of HRT will also suit you more than others. Our clinician can talk you through the different options, and help you to decide which one is right for you.
When you enter the menopause, the levels of oestrogen that your body produces start to decrease, due to a shift in the balance of your sex hormones. This can cause symptoms such as hot flushes, night sweats and changes to your mood. HRT contains a synthetic version of this hormone to make up for the natural amount you lose during the menopause, while helping to tackle your symptoms.
Combined forms of HRT also contain a second hormone: a synthetic form of progesterone. Without anything to keep it in check, oestrogen may increase your risk of getting endometrial cancer, as it can cause the womb lining to thicken more than it should. The combination of hormones in this type of HRT offers protection from this, significantly reducing the risk of womb cancer developing.
If you’ve had a total hysterectomy though, because your womb has been removed, you’ll usually be recommended a single-hormone HRT.
The menopause can also cause your bones to become more fragile and more prone to breaking. HRT can provide some protection against osteoporosis by helping the bones to stay strong. HRT isn’t a primary treatment for osteoporosis though, so if you’re looking to use it for this purpose, just let your clinician know and they can chat to you about it.
The major benefit of HRT is that it can help to ease many symptoms of the menopause (by as much as 75%, so quite a lot then).
The two synthetic hormones in combined HRT make a good team. They work together to manage your menopause symptoms and reduce your risk of developing cancer.
And there’s the protection it can provide from osteoporosis too, when the bones in the body are more at risk of breaking or becoming brittle after the menopause.
How we source info.
When we present you with stats, data, opinion or a consensus, we’ll tell you where this came from. And we’ll only present data as clinically reliable if it’s come from a reputable source, such as a state or government-funded health body, a peer-reviewed medical journal, or a recognised analytics or data body. Read more in our editorial policy.
There are a number of different types of HRT available, and we can talk you through your options.
These are one of the most widely used types of HRT. There are options for both combined-hormone HRT and single-hormone HRT, and you normally take them once every day. They do carry a slightly increased risk of blood clots than other forms of HRT treatment, but it is only a small increase (nine more women develop a blood clot for every 10,000 women each year). Because of this increased breast cancer risk, make sure you attend your breast cancer screening (mammogram) appointments.
If you find having to remember to take a daily treatment a bit inconvenient, theremay be a more low maintenance optiont for you. You can apply some HRT medications every couple of days. They’re available as a combined hormone treatment or as a single-hormone option. These might be a good option if you’re prone to HRT side effects such as indigestion, and they don’t pose the same risk of developing a blood clot.
Some women use locally applied treatments for HRT symptoms, because they’re really easy to use. You only need to apply them once a day. They don’t increase your blood clot risk either. If you still have your womb, you’ll need to use an additional medication to limit your chances of getting womb cancer.
How we source info.
When we present you with stats, data, opinion or a consensus, we’ll tell you where this came from. And we’ll only present data as clinically reliable if it’s come from a reputable source, such as a state or government-funded health body, a peer-reviewed medical journal, or a recognised analytics or data body. Read more in our editorial policy.
It depends on a number of factors, like what stage of the menopause you’re at, how sensitive you are to certain levels of hormones, and which type of medication seems the best suited for you.
Whether or not you’ve had a total hysterectomy is also a factor, and if you have certain health conditions, that can play a big part too.
Here are your options.
If you’re getting menopausal symptoms and you’re still having your period, combined sequential (or cyclical) HRT treatments are usually the recommended option.
This type of HRT releases different levels of hormones in phases throughout the month.
For example, some HRT medication is taken in month-long cycles, and involves taking one hormone daily for 28 days, with another hormone added for around 10-14 days of the cycle.
If you haven’t had a period for one year, you’re usually considered to be postmenopausal, and continuous combined HRT products tend to be the suggested route. With continuous combined HRT treatments, you take a combination of synthetic hormones every day, at the same dose, without a break (hence ‘continuous’).
Oestrogen only HRT is normally recommended for women who have had their womb removed during a hysterectomy.
Side effects of HRT may also vary from one woman to the next, so some HRT medications won’t be safe (or suitable) for women to use on this basis, while other products will be. If you have a particular health condition, this can mean that certain HRT products won’t be safe for you to use either.
How we source info.
When we present you with stats, data, opinion or a consensus, we’ll tell you where this came from. And we’ll only present data as clinically reliable if it’s come from a reputable source, such as a state or government-funded health body, a peer-reviewed medical journal, or a recognised analytics or data body. Read more in our editorial policy.
Have something specific you want to know about Menopause? Search our info below, or ask our experts a question if you can’t find what you’re looking for.
Menopause hormone therapy: latest developments and clinical practice. Drugs in Context. NCBI. 2019; 8: 212551.
Use of hormone replacement therapy and risk of venous thromboembolism: nested case-control studies using the QResearch and CPRD databases. BMJ. 2019;364:k4810.
Table 1: Summary of HRT risks and benefits during current use and current use plus post-treatment from age of menopause up to age 69 years, per 1000 women with 5 years or 10 years use of HRT.
Table 1: Summary of HRT risks and benefits during current use and current use plus post-treatment from age of menopause up to age 69 years, per 1000 women with 5 years or 10 years use of HRT.
Use of hormone replacement therapy and risk of venous thromboembolism: nested case-control studies using the QResearch and CPRD databases. BMJ. 2019;364:k4810.
Table 1: Summary of HRT risks and benefits during current use and current use plus post-treatment from age of menopause up to age 69 years, per 1000 women with 5 years or 10 years use of HRT.
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Here are some other things we can help with besides Menopause (HRT).
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