Hormone replacement therapy and previous use of oral contraceptives among Swedish women.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the current and previous use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and alternative remedies in a postmenopausal population and to relate HRT use to previous use of oral contraceptives.


METHODS
All 1323 women living in Linköping of 55 or 56 years old during 1995 were sent a questionnaire asking for data with relation to health and climacteric symptoms as well as to previous and current use of HRT, oral contraceptives and alternative remedies.


RESULTS
Current use of HRT was more common among women who previously used oral contraceptives (41.3%) than among women who had never used oral contraceptives (23.1%). HRT users were also more often physically active, had undergone hysterectomy and had lighter occupation than non-users. Of all women 35% were current users of HRT, half of them for at least 2 years, whereas only 5% had tried HRT and abandoned therapy. Alternative remedies were used by 5% of the women as therapy for climacteric complaints, and about four times as many women had tried such therapy but abandoned it. The only characteristic about use of alternative medicines was that they were used less often by women who had been hysterectomized. No women treated for breast cancer used HRT and only few of them used alternative remedies.


CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of HRT use, as well as compliance, was high. Previous use of oral contraceptives probably affected the attitude towards using HRT.
Hammar
M
M
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University Hospital, Linköping, Sweden.
Brynhildsen
J
J
Dabrosin
L
L
Frisk
J
J
Lindgren
R
R
Nedstrand
E
E
Wyon
Y
Y
D002979:Climacteric / Q000187:drug effects*; D003276:Contraceptives, Oral / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D004363:Drug Utilization; D015914:Estrogen Replacement Therapy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010352:Patient Dropouts / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology
D003276:Contraceptives, Oral