Hormone replacement therapy could improve physical quality of life for women with MS

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is used to reduce the effects of menopause, when there is a drop in female hormones such as oestrogen. After menopause, healthy women can experience several symptoms, including hot flushes, night sweats, mood swings and reduced sex drive, which reduce their quality of life. Replacement of female hormones may reduce these issues.

In this study, investigators at the UCSF MS centre in San Francisco, USA, asked whether quality of life reports from postmenopausal women with MS who were receiving HRT differed from those who were not receiving the therapy.

Investigators found 96 reports from women with MS, of whom 61 had received HRT. The reported quality of life scores from the questionnaires completed by these 96 people showed higher scores for physical quality of life in the group who received HRT. This might suggest that hormone replacement therapy could improve physical quality of life for women with MS.

The authors of this studies emphasise the need to perform stronger studies to confirm these results, especially because this study was retrospective.

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