HRT After Menopause Increases Bladder Incontinence

HRT has been shown to be worse for bladder troubles than nothing at all. We all thought it was the opposite, didn't we? We all recognize that one of the side effects of menopause is an increase in urinary incontinence so one of the benefits of HRT was always supposed to be a decrease in bladder problems.

Not so, unfortunately.

A new study published February in the Journal of American Medicine found that:

The researchers found that menopausal hormone therapy increased the incidence of all types of UI at 1 year among women who were continent at baseline. The risk was highest for stress UI (1.87-fold increased risk with CEE + MPA; CEE alone, 2.15-fold increased risk), followed by mixed UI (1.49-fold increased risk with CEE + MPA; CEE alone, 1.79-fold increased risk). The combination of CEE + MPA had no significant effect on developing urge UI, but CEE alone increased the risk by 1.32 fold. Among women who reported having UI at baseline, both frequency and amount of UI worsened in both trials. Women receiving menopausal hormone therapy were more likely to report that UI limited their daily activities and bothered or disturbed them at 1 year. (conjugated equine estrogen = CEE / estrogen plus progestin CEE plus medroxyprogesterone acetate = MPA)

On that page with the article is also a rebuttal which emphasizes that this was merely one attempt at studying estrogen, which was conjugated equine estrogen. Some people believe very strongly in finding sources of bioidentical estrogens and that medroxyprogesterone acetate is NOT the same as the progesterone our body produces. No study as been released yet that studies the effectiveness of estrogen creams on the same urinary incontinence problems either.

Until then, keep your ovaries if you can!

Posted by Elizabeth M. on March 11, 2005 3:49 PM