HRT PRESCRIBING GUIDELINES - DREAM OR REALITY

An international round-table meeting was held in the UK in June 1995, with the aim of developing simple, practical guidelines for hormone re placement therapy (HRT). Great emphasis was placed on initial and on-g oing counselling as a means of promoting compliance. The choice of pre paration will depend on whether the patient has an intact uterus, and, if so, whether she is willing to accept regular bleeding. Hysterectom ized women should receive continuous estrogen alone, while, for non-hy sterectomized women, the first choice of treatment is continuous estro gen with sequential progesterone for at least 10 days in each month. C ontinuous combined treatment may be given as an alternative. Symptomat ic side effects are most likely to occur at the beginning of treatment and can usually be easily managed by a change in the preparations. De spite misleading information in package inserts, there are few absolut e contraindications to HRT.