>From Daily Mail today:
Headline: Risky business: Should You Take HRT?
http://tinyurl.com/3x7gtj
An extract from a lenthy article:
"So who was right? And is it possible for a woman entering the
menopause to make an informed choice about whether HRT is a sensible
option?
....Tara Parker-Pope... believes initial media reports exaggerated the
findings of the WHI. Moreover, key mistakes were made in the way the
study was put together; as a result it evolved into a study of older
women taking HRT, not a study of menopause. "
Well I've missed the magic "window of opportunity" she talks about for
talking HRT when one is younger. So have I missed out in terms of
bones, skin etc? Should I have been less swayed by the negative
coverage of HRT at time of peri- and early menopause?
Article cites criticisms from members of the powerful medical pro-HRT
lobby in Britain on the WHI and Million Women Studies:
"The WHI investigators, supported by eminent scientists around the
globe, stood firm in their beliefs.
"This has huge implications," Malcolm Whitehead, director of the
Menopause Clinic at King's College, London, said at the time.
"You just can't justify long term use of HRT with these indications."
Critics of HRT gained further credence when The Million Women Study, a
British-based study of a quarter of all UK women aged 50 to 64 linked
HRT with a greater risk of breast, ovarian and endometrial cancer
(cancer of the lining of the womb).
Lead researcher, Professor Valerie Beral, of the University of Oxford,
said: "Our research clearly demonstrates the cancer risks of taking
HRT."
Meanwhile, longtime believers in HRT were convinced that the studies
themselves were flawed. British gynaecologist, John Studd, became a
vocal opponent of the WHI.
"The wrong patients from the wrong age group were given the wrong
treatment," he said. "So the conclusions of the studies are very
suspect."
Dr John Stevenson, an HRT expert at Royal Brompton Hospital, London,
and Chairman of the charity Women's Health Concern, added his voice to
the fray: "Nothing has changed at all. This whole issue has been a
huge disservice to women. They have suffered unnecessarily."
He was even less restrained when discussing The Million Women Study,
concluding: "The findings fly in the face of cancer biology. This is
just substituting science with sensationalism."
So who was right? And is it possible for a woman entering the
menopause to make an informed choice about whether HRT is a sensible
option?
In her controversial new book, HRT: Everything You Need To Know, Tara
Parker-Pope, an award-winning journalist and health columnist for the
Wall Street Journal, says the answer is a resounding yes..."
WSJ journalist's book allays HRT fears 
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