Risks and Benefits of Estrogen Plus Progestin in Healthy , Postmenopausal Women : Principal Results from the Women ' s Health Initiative Randomized Controlled Trial " ( 2002 )

In 2002, the Writing Group for the Women's Health Initiative Investigators published the article "Risks and Benefits of Estrogen Plus Progestin in Healthy, Postmenopausal Women: Principal Results from the Women's Health Initiative Randomized Controlled Trial" in The Journal of the American Medical Association [2]. In the article, the authors report on the Women's Health Initiative, which was a study initiated by the National Institutes of Health [3] to determine the effects of hormone [4] therapy in postmenopausal women, or women whose menstrual cycles have stopped, from the ages of fifty to seventy-nine. The researchers attempted to determine if a link existed between a common type of hormone therapy [5], a combination of estrogen [6] and progestin [7], and prevalent diseases in postmenopausal women, including cardiovascular disease and cancer. As reported by the authors in their article, the researchers discontinued the study after five years when they found that there were many risks associated with the use of estrogen [6] plus progestin [7] hormone therapy [5], including increased risks of breast cancer and heart diseases.