Use of hormone replacement therapy: women's representations of menopause and beauty care practices

Objectives: Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) during menopause has been sho wn to have beneficial effects on women's health. including preventing osteo porosis and probably reducing cardiovascular mortality and morbidity. Howev er. these effects appear only after long use. Knowledge of factors influenc ing HRT use is a prerequisite for developing and assessing preventive actio ns. Most studies of user characteristics have focused on medical knowledge and socioeconomic characteristics. although social and cultural models of m enopause may also play a role. Therefore, our study of the determinants of HRT use focused on representations of menopause and on beauty care. Methods : Two scores, one concerning the level of beauty care and the other the rep resentations of menopause, were calculated. In our population of 561 postme nopausal women from the GAZEL cohort in France. 409 (72.9%) had been using HRT for more than one year, and 152 (27.1%) had used it for less than three months, if ever. Associations between the study variables and HRT use were then analysed. Results: No association was found between representations o f menopause and HRT use. Beauty care and some beliefs about HRT (i.e, that it is useful for osteoporosis prevention, causes resumption of menstruation . and has anti-aging effects) were independently associated with HRT use. M oreover, the proportion of HRT users increased with socioeconomic status, w ith vasomotor symptoms in early menopause, and among hysterectomised women. Conclusions: The results suggest that the amount of attention women pay to beauty care plays a role, in determining HRT use. (C) 2000 Elsevier Scienc e Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.