[Benefits and risks in hormone substitute therapy in postmenopause].

Life of women has been prolonged for about twenty years during the last century, but the age at menopause has not changed. Women thus live a third of their lives after the menopause, which affects their morbidity and mortality. The risks of coronary events and osteoporotic fractures are reduced by 50% in postmenopausal women on long term hormone replacement therapy. In the article the author discusses current hypotheses of the protective effect of female reproductive hormones on the heart, the blood vessels and the bone, and other possible benefits of replacement therapy. The risks of hormone replacement therapy are discussed in detail. The only proven risk is that of endometrial hyperplasia and cancer in women with a spontaneous menopause on unopposed oestrogen therapy. The risk of breast cancer remains discutable.