More Questions than Answers from KEEPS Trial Results For Women in Hormone Replacement Therapy

Oct. 5, 2012 - PRLog -- NEW YORK CITY – The medical community is reacting today to the release of a new medical trial reviewing the use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for women. While many are surprised with the results, Dr. Joseph M. Raffaele of PhysioAge Medical Group calls the initial results from the KEEPS study disappointing.

“KEEPS reassures and disappoints at the same time,” he said “By confirming that short-term HRT is safe and effective for the control of the immediate symptoms of menopause, it is reassuring to women suffering from hot flashes and disrupted sleep but it was also disappointing because the women in it were probably too healthy and the study duration was too short to answer the question of whether HRT can help protect the arteries and brain as menopausal women get older.”

Part of Dr. Raffaele’s disappointment may originate with how the patients were chosen to be part of the clinical trial.

“If in [the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study] the women were too old and too unhealthy, in KEEPS they were too young and too healthy. It's fine that they were young and healthy but this necessitated that the study be at least 10 years long and probably needed five times as many women to answer the question: how long can I stay on HRT? It also should have compared transdermal Estradiol with oral Estradiol and not oral Premarin so as to be able to definitively answer the oral versus transdermal question.”

However, he discloses that his initial thoughts are based on the preliminary information released from the study.

“As with the WHI, the results are complex and we will be analyzing them for years,” he said “These may not be sexy headline results, but at least they are a solid step in the right direction and adds to our knowledge of the safety of HRT in recently menopausal women and reopens the door to larger trials."

Even though the KEEPS study may end up creating more questions than concrete answers, it did reinforce one major theory about hormone replacement therapy for women.

“I think that one of the major take home messages is that therapy needs to be personalized for each woman's individual aging process,” he added.

Joseph Raffaele, M.D., is the co-founder of PhysioAge Medical Group, a clinical practice in New York City that is at the leading edge of the emerging field of medicine focused on scientifically sound approaches to staying younger longer.

As a clinician, researcher and educator in the subspecialty known as Age Management Medicine, Dr. Raffaele has for the past 15 years been helping advance innovative, evidence-based approaches to extending “healthspan”— keeping the body young and vital whatever its chronological age.

Dr. Joseph M. Raffaele of PhysioAge Medical Group is available for industry expert media interviews on the controversial women’s health study. To contact him for an interview, please reach out the media contacts below.

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