english.prescrire.org > Spotlight > Archives : 2006 > Menopause: hormone treatment aggravates urinary incontinence

Spotlight: Archives

Every month, the subjects in Prescrire’s Spotlight.

2006 : 1 | 30 | 60

Menopause: hormone treatment aggravates urinary incontinence

Contrary to current thinking, hormone replacement therapy for menopausal women does not afford protection against urinary incontinence, which appears in fact to be an adverse effect of this treatment.

For a long time it was thought that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) helped to prevent urinary incontinence in menopausal women.

Several large-scale clinical trials focusing on the effect of HRT on the frequency of urinary incontinence (WHI trial conducted on more than 20,000 women, and the HERS trial involving nearly 3000 women) showed an increase in the frequency of urinary incontinence in menopausal women taking HRT. The WHI trial found that in women who had no history of urinary disorders before commencing HRT, the frequency of stress incontinence was 1.9 times higher than for women not taking HRT. In women who were already incontinent, the risk of aggravation under HRT was increased by a factor of around 1.4.

The results of these two major trials, which were not contradicted by other, smaller-scale trials, clearly show that HRT does not provide protection against incontinence, quite the opposite.

©Prescrire May 2006

Source: "Ménopause : le traitement hormonal aggrave les incontinences urinaires" Rev Prescrire 2006 ; 26 (272) : 344-345.

- More articles in Prescrire's "Spotlight"...