Summit: HRT safe for women 50 to 59

MADRID, May 22 (UPI) -- An international group of menopause experts meeting in Switzerland said that hormone replacement therapy in the early postmenopausal period is safe.

The experts said healthy women going through the first few years of menopause who need HRT to relieve symptoms should discuss her general health and risk factors such as a family history, smoking, etc., with doctors but generally healthy women -- those with no other breast cancer risk factors -- entering the menopause should have no fears.

The group reviewed the evidence on the safety, risks and benefits of HRT in the first few years of the menopause. The Zurich Summit members said HRT use declined after the Women's Health Initiative study results were published in 2002 that seemed to show that women taking HRT were at greater risk of breast cancer and heart disease.

However, since the first study was released, summit members said that study participants weren't completely representative of women taking HRT -- average age was 63 years of age, 36 percent had hypertension, 49 percent were current or past smokers and 34 percent were clinically obese.

The findings are being presented at the 12th World Congress on the Menopause in Madrid.