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About this information

  • The calculator gives estimates of the size of the risks and benefits of taking combined (oestrogen plus progestogen) HRT during and after their menopause for women in Australia.
  • You can use this calculator to find the effect that taking HRT (for one year or five years) would have on your risk of six different diseases.
  • We have given information on four diseases that combined HRT use increases your risk of developing:
    - breast cancer
    - heart disease
    - stroke
    - vein thrombosis (blood clotting)
  • And two that combined HRT use reduces your risk of developing:
    - bowel cancer and
    - hip fracture.
  • The risks and benefits are estimated for women in general. They may be different if you have a personal or family history of a disease that may be affected by taking HRT, for example breast cancer or heart disease.
  • The information relates only to the oestrogen plus progestogen combination HRT, which is the most common type. Women who have had a hysterectomy usually take a different type of HRT that contains oestrogen only.
  • If you are unsure of the type of HRT you are taking you should ask your doctor or pharmacist.
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How the information was calculated

The information was calculated by applying the most recent information about risks and benefits (from the US Women's Health Initiative study) to rates of disease in Australian women.
Using this information, we have calculated the risk of each disease. The risks are given as the number of women in every 1,000 women who develop the disease over five years.
If you would like to know how we calculated the risks and benefits of HRT and the assumptions that we made in doing so, click here.

How certain are we?

The information here is based on the findings of the Women's Health Initiative study. The observed increase in risk of breast cancer and decrease in risk of hip fracture from using HRT in this study were similar to the results of other studies, so we are confident that HRT does have these effects on these diseases.

On the other hand, doctors previously believed that the use of HRT would protect women from heart disease, but the Women's Health Initiative study found that HRT use actually increased women's risk of heart disease. Since the study is one of the first to find such a result, we cannot be as certain that HRT use does increase your risk of heart disease.
[[Back to Risks and benefits of HRT.

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