Revisiting hormone therapy: New study suggests women don't need to fear it

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Hot flashes. Trouble sleeping. Pain during sex. Many women endure some of these symptoms of menopause, because of a controversial 2002 study that scared women and doctors away from hormone replacement therapy.

Now a new followup study suggests the treatment is safer than originally thought.

When 72-year-old Marla Gain of Orange was 50, doctors removed her ovaries which threw her into menopause.

"I'd go to bed. Wake up! Dripping wet with night sweats and hot flashes. It was horrible," she recalled.

She started hormone replacement therapy. But at 65, her doctor stopped prescribing it.

"She said, I feel you need to see a gynecologist, I'm not comfortable giving it to you."

The concern is over decades-old findings.

In 2002, researchers stopped one arm of the Women's Health Initiative study because the data suggested an increase in breast cancer. Use of hormone therapy declined 80%.

"Women were truly - I guess the best way to say is they were freaked out," said OB-GYN Dr. Thomas Ruiz with MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center.

He said the data may have been misinterpreted. In a new JAMA study, researchers say hormone therapy can be a safe, long-term way to treat hot flashes and discomfort associated with menopause.

"You don't have to arbitrarily stop your hormone replacement therapy at 65, you can continue it on through the end of life or whenever you want to stop, " said Ruiz.

He added most doctors prescribe estrogen patches which get to the bloodstream more efficiently and are identical to what the body produces naturally. But it may take a few tries to find the right fit.

"A physician has to understand: If you're doing hormone replacement therapy, not everyone's biology and biochemistry is exactly the same," he said.

Gain's advice is to talk to your doctor about the pros and cons.

"You need to get a doctor you trust," she said. "And I trust Dr. Ruiz. I don't see myself ever going off it."