Cancer warning for HRT

The debate over HRT intensified today after experts warned women not to use it because of the risk of fatal side effects.

Safety chiefs say the risk of using hormone replacement therapy for the bone disease osteoporosis outweighs the potential benefits.

But HRT's supporters have come forward to condemn the decision, saying it could leave a generation of women at risk of an epidemic of potentially-fatal broken bones.

The new ruling by the Committee on Safety of Medicines (CSM), which advises the Government, tells doctors that long-term use of HRT can increase the risk of cancer and could be linked to heart disease. The committee says the therapy should only be used for short-term relief of the symptoms of menopause.

It has told doctors to review their patients' treatment at their next appointment.

However Professor John Stephenson, of the British Menopause Society, said the new advice ignored evidence from clinical trials showing that women using HRT benefited from a "substantial reduction" in fractures.

He said: "Many women have been wrongly advised to stop or not even start HRT, with subsequent deteriorationin their health and wellbeing."

Professor Stephenson said other anti-osteoporosis drugs were licensed to fight osteoporosis when it was established but could not reduce the risk of developing it.

The ruling by the CSM follows the huge Million Women Study, published in August, which found that using the most common form of HRT - combined oestrogen and progestogen - for 10 years doubles the risk of breast cancer and raises the risk of cancers of the womb and ovaries.

Since then up to half the estimated 1.7 million British women using the therapy have stopped. The latest move will affect some 350,000 women, with only those unable to tolerate other osteoporosis therapies allowed to carry on using HRT.

One in three women over 50 suffers from the bone disease, with 14,000 dying every year in Britain as a result of fractures.

Bone thinning after the menopause is the result of the fall in the level of the hormone oestrogen. HRT is designed to replace the oestrogen and reduce the risk of fractures.

Dr Sian Walker, of HRT manufacturer Wyeth, said most women only took the drug for short-term relief for menopausal symptoms, over a period of two to three years.

However the National Osteoporosis Society backed the latest advice.

A spokesman said women who want to cut the risk of developing the disease should eat a balanced diet and do more weight-bearing exercise.

The new advice to doctors follows a detailed review of research by a European-wide drug safety group which said women should be prescribed HRT only to relieve shortterm symptoms of the menopause.

It advised them to take the lowest effective dose for the shortest possible period.