Objective: A survey was designed to determine why menopausal women do not take hormone replacement therapy (HRT).
Design: A sample of 3,600 women > 50 years old were randomly selected from six zip codes in northwest suburban Chicago. They received a maximum of three survey mailings. Those who did not respond were called and asked to respond over the phone. The data that were obtained included knowledge of, physician discussion about, use of, and reason for not currently taking HRT, menopausal status, last physician visit, and age grouping.
Results: A total of 1,966 (65%) women responded. Of these, 1,448 (74%) knew about HRT, 1,193 (61%) had discussed HRT with their physicians, and 815 (41%) had been treated with HRT in the past. A total of 552 women (28%) were currently being treated with HRT, of whom 419 (76%) had been treated for > 2 years. A total of 1,356 respondents were not being treated with HRT. Of these, 1,114 (82%) were menopausal, of whom 742 (67%) knew about HRT, 551 (50%) had discussed HRT with their physicians, 837 (75%) had seen their physician in the past year, and 236 (21%) had been treated with HRT in the past. Reasons for not taking HRT included the following: 49% no longer had menopausal symptoms, 45% did not want to take HRT, 33% were not offered it by their doctors, 28% were afraid to use it, and 27% were not menopausal.
Conclusions: Seeing a physician in the past year did not ensure that these women understood the symptom course of menopause. Confirming women's knowledge about menopausal health or assisting physician education about menopausal health may offer opportunities both to assist women's decision making about HRT and to improve women's health care.