NEW HAVEN, Conn., June 28 (UPI) -- The study that sparked a worldwide scare over the risks of Hormone Replacement Therapy may have been fundamentally flawed, says a Yale researcher.
Dr. Frederick Naftolin, of the department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive medicine at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., said that the Women's Health Initiative study appeared to show that HRT increased the risk of heart disease and breast cancer, but that the result was misinterpreted, the Daily Telegraph reported.
Millions of women have taking HRT to relieve some symptoms of menopause have stopped taking the drug because of the WHI study, said Naftolin.
Naftolin wrote in the Journal Fertility and Sterility that women recruited for the study were not representative of those taking the drug and the results were wrongly interpreted.
Most subjects were in their 60s, some were in their early 70s and almost all had long since gone through the menopause, the study said.
Because the study was set up to test the effects of HRT on heart disease, most had heart problems when it started, Naftolin said.
