AMID a storm of controversy, family doctors in Europe have been told not to offer older women hormone replacement therapy solely to prevent osteoporosis.
The advice, by the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products, has been backed by national drugs authorities, but not without acrimony. David Purdie, a member of the UK鈥橲 Committee on Safety of Medicines, was so outraged by the committee鈥檚 support for the advice that he resigned.
The authorities based their recommendation on two large, long-running studies in Europe and the US, which concluded that women over 50 taking HRT are more likely to develop cancers of the breast, ovary and womb lining, and face other risks such as strokes and heart problems. But critics say the numbers affected are too small to justify the advice.
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鈥淭heir case for saying HRT is unsafe is very poor,鈥� says John Stevenson, consultant physician in metabolism at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London. His advice to women is to 鈥渋gnore the advice鈥�. He points out that although drugs such as bisphosphonates exist for treating osteoporosis itself, only HRT can prevent the condition.