Recommendations of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) for Menopausal Hormone Therapy:
It is against the recommendation of the USPSTF to treat postmenopausal women with combinations of estrogen and progestin for the prevention of chronic illnesses in postmenopausal women. The USPSTF advises against the use of estrogen in postmenopausal women with hysterectomy for prevention of chronic illness. The USPSTF reviewed trials authored between 2002 and 2012 which covered the use of hormone therapy in postmenopausal women. The perspective of the USPSTF is that hormone therapy used in postmenopausal women may lower the risk of fractures but increases the risk for stroke, blood clots, gallbladder problems, and may result in urinary incontinence. Estrogen used alone may decrease the risk of breast cancer, but combination estrogen and progestin has been found to increase the risk of breast cancer and likely dementia. (4,5)