Dr. Jen Gunter

You would know.

Right.

If you were taking medication like, well, I call my flashes upon, you probably would be suspicious that you were given the medication.

Right.

So that's the context that's often forgotten when it's discussed, and you can't blame a trial for not doing what you wanted it to do.

Well, so the age group is that we were starting too old, and that what we found from the study was when menopausal hormone therapy is started later, after the age of 60 to 65, that there's an increased risk of cardiovascular complications and increased risk of dementia.

And when they went back and reanalyzed the data and looked at the 50 to 59 group, those risks reduced significantly.

And so there wasn't a net cardiac benefit, but there wasn't a net problem.

So that's great.

Isn't that great data?

If you want to take hormones to prevent hot flashes and night sweats, that you don't have to worry about that.

Oral estrogen is associated with increased risk of blood clots.

It's still kind of in the rare risk.

Obviously, you have to decide.

And that's just with oral, with transdromal, we think the risk is lower.

So people have criticized the WHI for not using other estrogens.

Well, they were using the most common at the time.

So you can't criticize them for that.

They criticize the age group.

Well, they were looking at primary prevention for all women and they were trying to get people who wouldn't have hot flashes or a significant percentage.