Health related quality of life after combined hormone replacement therapy

<p>
<b>
Objective
</b>
To assess the effect of combined hormone replacement therapy (HRT) on health related quality of life.
</p>
<p><b>Design</b> Randomised placebo controlled double blind trial. </p>
<p><b>Participants</b> Postmenopausal women aged 50-69 at randomisation; 3721 women with a uterus were randomised to combined oestrogen and progestogen (n=1862) or placebo (n=1859). Data on health related quality of life at one year were available from 1043 and 1087 women, respectively. </p>
<p><b>Interventions</b> Conjugated equine oestrogen 0.625 mg plus medroxyprogesterone acetate 2.5/5.0 mg or matched placebo orally daily for one year. </p>
<p><b>Main outcome measures</b> Health related quality of life and psychological wellbeing as measured by the women’s health questionnaire. Changes in emotional and physical menopausal symptoms as measured by a symptoms questionnaire and depression by the Centre for Epidemiological Studies depression scale (CES-D). Overall health related quality of life and overall quality of life as measured by the European quality of life instrument (EuroQol) and visual analogue scale, respectively. </p>
<p><b>Results</b> After one year small but significant improvements were observed in three of nine components of the women’s health questionnaire for those taking combined HRT compared with those taking placebo: vasomotor symptoms (P&lt;0.001), sexual functioning (P&lt;0.001), and sleep problems (P&lt;0.001). Significantly fewer women in the combined HRT group reported hot flushes (P&lt;0.001), night sweats (P&lt;0.001), aching joints and muscles (P=0.001), insomnia (P&lt;0.001), and vaginal dryness (P&lt;0.001) than in the placebo group, but greater proportions reported breast tenderness (P&lt;0.001) or vaginal discharge (P&lt;0.001). Hot flushes were experienced in the combined HRT and placebo groups by 30% and 29% at trial entry and 9% and 25% at one year, respectively. No significant differences in other menopausal symptoms, depression, or overall quality of life were observed at one year. </p>
<p><b>Conclusions</b> Combined HRT started many years after the menopause can improve health related quality of life. </p>
<p><strong>BMJ 2008;337:a1190</strong></p>