Hormone replacement therapy (HRT).

Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care 2004: 30(1) Introduction “I’m confused, anxious, wary. The press coverage on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has left me feeling concerned and, frankly, troubled. Is HRT a good thing or isn’t it? Should I be taking it or shouldn’t I? I’ve even become doubtful about taking medical advice on all this. To be frank, I’m going to gather information for myself – and probably go the route of complementary therapy.” So says Corinne Sweet, a relationship psychologist and perimenopausal patient, responding to the recent press coverage of the Million Women Study (MWS) on the link between HRT and breast cancer.1 And Corinne isn’t alone. Granted, there aren’t yet any seminal studies of the impact of this summer’s coverage – which itself came disturbingly hard on the heels of coverage of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study of 2002. But my sense, as an agony aunt on the front line of women’s emotional concerns, is that there is a growing sense of unease among patients. Like Corinne, they may not share their feelings with their medical practitioners. But the press coverage has wobbled them. I’m not just going on my gut reaction here. Two months after the MWS results, health information charity Women’s Health Concern (WHC) issued a strongly worded press release criticising the media approach as making potential users “terrified” of taking HRT. Their research of 79 general practitioners (GPs) attending the WHC Annual Symposium had suggested that “the publicity surrounding the Women’s Health Initiative and Million Women Studies has meant that over the past 12 months ... 63% of women starting their menopause refuse to use HRT ... 52% of women on HRT are not coming back for repeat prescriptions ... 92% of women want to discuss alternative options to HRT.” Given that the vast majority of women are not reading the original research, it could well be the press coverage of that research which is creating the ripples of emotion. So what emotions are the coverage creating? And how exactly? To find out, I took a ‘snapshot’ of press coverage of the MWS, and analysed – in emotional terms – exactly what was going on.