title: Women gynecologists' attitude toward their own health.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Following the publication of the results of Women's Health Initiative in 2002 there have been gross changes in the attitude of women and physicians towards the risks and benefits of hormone replacement therapy (HRT). We evaluated the attitude of women gynecologist towards their own health, including adherence to recommended screening tests and self usage and prescription of hormone replacement therapy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Questionnaires regarding performance of screening tests, self usage and recommendation of HRT were posted by mail to all Israel's women gynecologists.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Ninety questionnaires were eligible for analysis (43.2% response rate). Average age was 48+/-7.7 years. Only 7/90 (7.8%) gynecologists smoke regularly and average body mass index was 25+/-3.8 kg/m2. Most participants performed at least one screening tests in the past 2 years. The median interval from the last self breast exam, mammography, gynecologisy exam, Papanicolaou test, colonoscopy and bone density test was 0.2, 1.82, 1.79, 1.95, 3.27 and 1.41 years, respectively. Most of them (68.3%) did not routinely recommend HRT to their patients. The duration of self HRT usage ranged between 1-20 years (average 5.1+/-3.4 years). Most gynecologists (87.7%) recommended continuous estrogen and progesterone for women with their uterus in place.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The health profile of Israeli women gynecologists is chracterized by a high performance of screening tests for cancer and low rate of smoking. Our study also demonstrates that the impact of the results of the WHI trial is still well manifested and most Israeli women gynecologists do not routinely recommend HRT to postmenopausal women.
authors.affiliation: Helen Schneider Hospital for Women, Rabin Medical Center, Campus Beilinson, Petah Tiqva 49100, Israel. alinabrenner@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Alina
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Weissmann-Brenner
authors.forename: Baruch
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Brenner
authors.forename: Jaqueline
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sulkes
authors.forename: Boris
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kaplan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D016504:Breast Self-Examination / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003113:Colonoscopy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006176:Gynecology / Q000639:trends*; D020249:Hormone Replacement Therapy / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D008327:Mammography / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D065006:Papanicolaou Test; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000639:trends*; D012907:Smoking; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014626:Vaginal Smears / Q000706:statistics & numerical data