HEALTH REPORT - Hormone Replacement Therapy Study Halted

HEALTH REPORT-July 24, 2002: Hormone¹ Replacement² Therapy Study Halted

By Nancy Steinbach
This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

American government researchers have halted a national women’s health study
because they found harmful effects from hormone replacement therapy, or H-R-T.

Women’s bodies stop producing the hormone estrogen at about the age of fifty.

This period of life is called menopause. Until now, medical experts believed that
taking the hormone estrogen could protect older women from health problems like
heart disease. Recent studies have disagreed, however.

The latest study is the largest ever done to investigate the effects of H-R-T on
healthy, older women. Researchers from the National Institutes of Health carried out the study. It involved more
than sixteen-thousand women between the ages of fifty and seventy-nine. Half of the women took a pill that
contains the hormones³ estrogen and progestin. The other women took an inactive substance.

After five years, the women who took the hormones were twenty-six percent more likely to develop breast cancer
than the others. The study found that the hormones also increased the chances of heart attacks by twenty-nine
percent and strokes by forty-one percent. The researchers did find that the treatment reduced the number of
broken bones and colon⁴ cancers. But officials decided⁵ to stop the study three years early because they believed
the hormones did more harm than good.

The study tested the hormone progestin mixed with a kind of estrogen. About six -million American women use
this kind of hormone replacement therapy. Adding progestin to the estrogen is necessary to prevent the risk of
cancer of the uterus. A similar combination is used in Europe.

The study results were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Some experts said women
should use the hormones only to ease severe problems during menopause, such as feelings of extreme heat. They
said women should not take hormone replacement therapy for more than a few years. They said women should
protect their hearts and bones with other drugs and exercise.

The researchers said more testing is needed to see if other kinds of H-R-T have similar effects. For example, they
said it may be safer to use smaller amounts of estrogen and progestin that can be placed on the skin.

This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach.

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1 hormone   

n.荷尔蒙，激素，内分泌

参考例句：

• Hormone implants are used as growth boosters.激素植入物被用作生长辅助剂。
• This hormone interacts closely with other hormones in the body.这种荷尔蒙与体內其他荷尔蒙紧密地相互作用。

2 replacement   

n.取代，替换，交换；替代品，代用品

参考例句：

• We are hard put to find a replacement for our assistant.我们很难找到一个人来代替我们的助手。
• They put all the students through the replacement examination.他们让所有的学生参加分班考试。

3 hormones   

n. 荷尔蒙，激素 名词hormone的复数形式

参考例句：

• This hormone interacts closely with other hormones in the body. 这种荷尔蒙与体內其他荷尔蒙紧密地相互作用。
• The adrenals produce a large per cent of a man's sex hormones. 肾上腺分泌人体的大部分性激素。

4 colon   

n.冒号，结肠，直肠

参考例句：

• Here,too,the colon must be followed by a dash.这里也是一样，应当在冒号后加破折号。
• The colon is the locus of a large concentration of bacteria.结肠是大浓度的细菌所在地。

5 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。