what they said (Hover the mouse cursor over underlined words for more info)

An international panel of menopause experts says that hormone replacement therapy, as long as it's taken for a few years in the early postmenopausal period, is safe.

"Hormone replacement therapy remains the first-line and most effective treatment for menopausal symptoms," reads the summary of the findings...

The original article can be found at: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2008/05/20/hrt-menopause.html?ref=rss

how did it rate? (more information)

what we said (Hover the mouse cursor over underlined words for more info)

This article falls short in reporting pertinent information about the the treatment of menopause through HRT. First and foremost, the attempt to disprove findings of the 2002 Women's Health Initiative study are not validated with clinical evidence but are based on the "expert" opinion of the international panel. Although HRT has been around for quite some time, the article does not provide a balanced look at the risks and benefits of this treatment but rather sets out to disprove the harms quantified in the 2002 study. While the expert panel does find legitimate concerns/issues in the 2002 study, it does not say what evidence it is using to support this view.
The article claims that HRT is safe in this so-called phase of early postmenopause, but never actually explains what "early" means for women considering this treatment. Even after reading this article, it is unclear when exactly women are safe to pursue this treatment. It is important to know who funded the summit from which these conclusions are drawn and the authors provide no information regarding potential conflicts of interest.

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