Medical Questions » Menopause Questions » Question No. 671
| Question: | I am 62 and on treatment for blood pressure. I am concerned about osteoporosis and heart disease and I am considering using the oestrogen patch. I finished my menopause 9 years ago. Are hormones going to help me now? What effect will it have on blood pressure? |
| Answer: | Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) using oestrogen and progestogen is very beneficial to women during and after the menopause. If you have had your uterus removed in a hysterectomy, only the oestrogen hormone is required.
These female sex hormones not only telieve the symptoms of the menopause such as hot flushes, irritability, irregular bleeding, breast tenderness etc., but protect women against osteoporosis (weakening of the bones), hardening of the arteries and heart disease.
It is a treatment that I highly commend to all women, and may be taken until vou are well into your seventies. There is absolutely no evidence that it will cause any increase in the incidence of breast cancer.
Your blood pressure may actually improve using HRT, but there is no guarantee of this. It will certainly not get worse or interact with your medication.
Both oesttogen and progestogen can be taken as a tablet, a stick-on patch that is replaced twice a week, or as an implant every three months. Oestrogen is also available as a vaginal cream that is used once or twice a week.
I strongly suggest that after further discussion with your general practitioner you commence hormone replacement therapy.
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