What is “The Women’s Health Initiative”?

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) established the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) in 1991 to address the most common causes of death, disability and impaired quality of life in postmenopausal women. The Women’s Health Initiative was designed to define the risks and benefits of using synthetic hormone therapy to potentially prevent heart disease, breast and colorectal cancer, and osteoporosis in postmenopausal women. It is important to note that the women in this study were all postmenopausal, average age of sixty-eight. This fact is significant as most of these women had 15 years since the loss of their hormones to develop diseases that estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone might have prevented. Most importantly, the study used synthetic hormones and not natural bio-identical hormones. This was a 15 year research program and the women in these studies are now participating in a follow-up phase, which will last until 2010.

Phil Altman, R.Ph.,

Compounding Pharmacist