[Hormone replacement therapy in the peri-menopausal and post menopausal period: more than half of the women were treated for more than one year].
OBJECTIVE
To describe the use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and oral contraceptives (OC) among women in the Netherlands in the 45 to 69 years age group during the year 2002.


METHODS
Descriptive.


METHODS
Pharmaceutical data on 42,032 women who were in the 45-69 years age group on 31 December 2002 was selected from the InterAction database, a collection of community pharmacy data from the north of the Netherlands. The duration of the therapy was investigated for women who had received at least one HRT or OC prescription in 2002.


RESULTS
Oral contraceptives were used by 11.3% of women aged 50-54 years and 1.8% of women aged 55-59 years. The prevalence of HRT ranged from 6.0% to 11.7% depending on age. Of these users (n = 3885) 28.6% used an oestrogen-progestagen preparation. A treatment period of more than one year was found in 62.3% of women aged 45-49 years and 82.6% of women aged 55-59 years. In particular, preparations containing just oestrogen had been used for a longer period; 43.4% had used these for more than 5 years.


CONCLUSIONS
More than half of the women who used HRT had done so for more than one year.
Tobi
H
H
Groningen University Institute for Drug Exploration, afd. Sociale Farmacie, Farmaco-epidemiologie en Farmacotherapie, Antonius Deusinglaan 1, 9713 AV Groningen.
van den Berg
P B
PB
Brouwers
J R
JR
de Jong-van den Berg
L T
LT
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D003276:Contraceptives, Oral / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D004363:Drug Utilization; D015914:Estrogen Replacement Therapy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D020249:Hormone Replacement Therapy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008593:Menopause; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands; D013997:Time Factors
D003276:Contraceptives, Oral