Race May Impact Satisfaction With Hormone Therapy for Menopause Symptoms

TUESDAY, Nov. 1, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Black and White women report different preferences for treatment for menopause symptoms, according to a study published Oct. 18 in Menopause.

Monica Christmas, M.D., from the University of Chicago, and colleagues compared hormone therapy (HT) to complementary alternative medicine (CAM) and associations with quality of life by race/ethnicity. The analysis included 2,514 participants in the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation.

The researchers found that during 7.8 years of follow-up, 29 percent of women reported HT of 2.4 years and 32 percent of women reported CAM use of 2.1 years. Neither HT nor CAM was associated with quality of life. There was a significant treatment-by-race/ethnicity interaction for self-reported quality of life. White women had higher self-reported quality of life among HT-only users versus those who used neither. Among Black women, using HT only was associated with lower self-reported quality of life versus Black women using neither.

"Clinicians need to recognize that culturally sensitive care is imperative to overall success in treating patients," Christmas said in a statement. "It was very surprising to find that Black women reported lower quality of life in response to hormone therapy. Black women tend to experience more frequent and severe menopause symptoms for a longer duration than White women, so my instinct as a physician would be to encourage a Black patient reporting hot flashes and discomfort to consider hormone therapy -- but these results indicate that more education around the short and long-term benefits of hormone therapy is needed."

Two authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

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