Hormone replacement therapy: discrepancies between evidence and recommendations

Abstract

Postmenopausal hormone therapy is widely used to prevent diseases. This is not, however, based on the kind of evidence that is normally required of a preventive drug therapy: it is based on intermediary outcomes of trials and non-experimental studies. Many reasons can be postulated for the fact that we know little of this old and widely used therapy. To remedy the current situation, we should encourage randomised controlled trials, reveal the insufficiency of the current evidence, and challenge the drug industry's biased influence.