Women taking HT had a significantly decreased incidence of fracture with long-term use .
Research ers found no strong evidence that HT has a clinical ly meaningful impact on the incidence of colorectal cancer .
AUTHORS ' CONCLUSIONS : Women with intolerable menopausal symptoms may wish to weigh the benefits of symptom relief against the small absolute risk of harm arising from short-term use of low-dose HT , provided they do not have specific contraindications .
HT may be unsuitable for some women , including those at increased risk of cardiovascular disease , increased risk of thromboembolic disease ( such as those with obesity or a history of venous thrombosis ) or increased risk of some types of cancer ( such as breast cancer , in women with a uterus ) .
The risk of endometrial cancer among women with a uterus taking oestrogen-only HT is well documented .
HT is not indicated for primary or secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease or dementia , nor for prevention of deterioration of cognitive function in postmenopausal women .
Although HT is considered effective for the prevention of postmenopausal osteoporosis , it is generally recommended as an option only for women at significant risk for whom non-oestrogen therapies are unsuitable .
BACKGROUND : Hormone therapy ( HT ) is widely provided for control of menopausal symptoms and has been used for the management and prevention of cardiovascular disease , osteoporosis and  dementia in older women .
This is an up date d version of a Cochrane review first published in 2005 .
OBJECTIVES : To assess effects of long-term HT ( at least 1 year 's duration ) on mortality , cardiovascular outcomes , cancer , gallbladder disease , fracture and cognition in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women during and after cessation of treatment .
Long-term effects on cognitive function of postmenopausal hormone therapy prescribed to women aged 50 to 55 years.
IMPORTANCE Postmenopausal hormone therapy with conjugated equine estrogens ( CEEs ) may adversely affect older women ’s cognitive function . It is not known whether this extends to younger women . OBJECTIVE To test whether prescribing CEE-based hormone therapy to postmenopausal women aged 50 to 55 years has longer-term effects on cognitive function . DESIGN Trained , masked staff assessed participants with an annual telephone-administered cognitive battery that included measures of global and domain-specific cognitive functions . Cognitive testing was conducted an average of 7.2 years after the trials ended , when women had a mean age of 67.2 years , and repeated 1 year later . Enrollment occurred from 1996 through 1999 . SETTING Forty academic research centers . PARTICIPANTS The study population comprised 1326 postmenopausal women , who had begun treatment in 2 r and omized placebo-controlled clinical trials of hormone therapy when aged 50 to 55 years . INTERVENTION The clinical trials in which the women had participated had compared 0.625 mg CEE with or without 2.5 mg medroxyprogesterone acetate over a mean of 7.0 years . MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was global cognitive function . Secondary outcomes were verbal memory , attention , executive function , verbal fluency , and working memory . RESULTS Global cognitive function scores from women who had been assigned to CEE-based therapies were similar to those from women assigned to placebo : mean ( 95 % CI ) intervention effect of 0.02 ( −0.08 to 0.12 ) st and ard deviation units ( P = .66 ) . Similarly , no overall differences were found for any individual cognitive domain ( all P > .15 ) . Prespecified subgroup analyses found some evidence that CEE-based therapies may have adversely affected verbal fluency among women who had prior hysterectomy or prior use of hormone therapy : mean treatment effects of −0.17 ( −0.33 to −0.02 ) and −0.25 ( −0.42 to −0.08 ) , respectively ; however , this may be a chance finding . CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE CEE-based therapies produced no overall sustained benefit or risk to cognitive function when administered to postmenopausal women aged 50 to 55 years . We are not able to address whether initiating hormone therapy during menopause and maintaining therapy until any symptoms are passed affects cognitive function , either in the short or longer term . TRIAL REGISTRATION clinical trials.gov Identifier : NCT01124773
Women taking HT had a significantly decreased incidence of fracture with long-term use .
Research ers found no strong evidence that HT has a clinical ly meaningful impact on the incidence of colorectal cancer .
AUTHORS ' CONCLUSIONS : Women with intolerable menopausal symptoms may wish to weigh the benefits of symptom relief against the small absolute risk of harm arising from short-term use of low-dose HT , provided they do not have specific contraindications .
HT may be unsuitable for some women , including those at increased risk of cardiovascular disease , increased risk of thromboembolic disease ( such as those with obesity or a history of venous thrombosis ) or increased risk of some types of cancer ( such as breast cancer , in women with a uterus ) .
The risk of endometrial cancer among women with a uterus taking oestrogen-only HT is well documented .
HT is not indicated for primary or secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease or dementia , nor for prevention of deterioration of cognitive function in postmenopausal women .
Although HT is considered effective for the prevention of postmenopausal osteoporosis , it is generally recommended as an option only for women at significant risk for whom non-oestrogen therapies are unsuitable .
BACKGROUND : Hormone therapy ( HT ) is widely provided for control of menopausal symptoms and has been used for the management and prevention of cardiovascular disease , osteoporosis and  dementia in older women .
This is an up date d version of a Cochrane review first published in 2005 .
OBJECTIVES : To assess effects of long-term HT ( at least 1 year 's duration ) on mortality , cardiovascular outcomes , cancer , gallbladder disease , fracture and cognition in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women during and after cessation of treatment .