Long-term impact of the women's health initiative on HRT

Objective To evaluate the long-term trends in the HRT following the results of the WHI, which were made public in July 2002. Study design An observational cohort study was performed from prescription data of estrogen containing products ordered from Tripler Army Medical Center between July 1999 and July 2005. We used automated pharmacy data to identify all estrogen products dispensed to active duty soldiers, dependent wives, and retirees during the study period. Differences in prescription rate were compared between groups using a Student's t-test. Results A total of 71,592 prescriptions were written for HRT. Prescriptions decreased from 1,272/month at the start of the study to 493/month at the conclusion of the study. Prior to July 2002 OBGYNs were the first to decrease their prescribing rate of estrogen, and this decrease was greater than other specialties analyzed. The frequency of HRT prescriptions decreased after July 2002 while the percentage of patients who filled HRT prescriptions increased from 68 to 72%. Conclusions We have found a significant decrease in prescriptions after release of the WHI initiative results. With this decrease in prescribing rate of HRT we found that a greater percentage of women actually filled their prescriptions perhaps indicating greater certainty in their choice.