ABSTRACT
Since the promised decrease in risk of fracture and vascular disease is observed exclusively in current estrogen users, compliance to hormone replacement therapy (HRT) must be improved primarily in women aged 60 years and more. In today’s average situation only a very small selected group of women, likely to be the healthiest part of the population, remain compliant to HRT long enough to secure preventive benefits, while most women never use HRT or stop taking it after only a short time. Without striking improvements in the management of compliance in elderly women, therefore, the type of HRT currently prescribed today is not likely to be effective in preventive medicine.
