Docs use hormones more often than prescribe them

Doctors may be more willing to use hormone replacement therapy (HRT), or recommend it to their wives, than to prescribe it to their patients, a study of German gynecologists suggests.

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Nearly all were willing to recommend HRT for hot flashes, a typical menopause problem, whether to a partner or a patient. But with other potential uses, there was some disconnect.

For example, 59 percent of the doctors said they would take hormones to ward off osteoporosis, or recommend it to their partners. But of that group, only three-quarters had suggested the same thing to at least some patients.

That's not surprising, given the issues swirling around HRT, according to Dr. Michele Curtis of the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, who was not involved in the study.

The survey, which includes responses from more than 2,500 doctors, was done in 2010, eight years after the Women's Health Initiative hit the news.

The WHI was a large U.S. clinical trial that found that women given estrogen-plus-progesterone HRT had higher risks of blood clots, heart attack, stroke and breast cancer than placebo users did.

Up to that point, HRT had commonly been prescribed to prevent heart disease, which is generally not advised anymore.

However, hormone therapy is the most effective way to ease menopausal hot flashes and vaginal dryness, and it is still an option for those symptoms. Similarly, since HRT protects bone mass, it's an option for treating the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis -- though it's considered a "second-line" option after other treatments.

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Docs use hormones more often than prescribe them