Women's health: hormone replacement therapy - what women know and do about it

ABSTRACT

The aims of the study reported on in this paper were to determine the health status of a group of Trinidadian women age 40-64 years; to ascertain how informed they were about the "change of life", and determine the sources from which they had received their information. The study also sought to discover what women knew about hormone replacement therapy(HRT) and what had been their personal experience of it. Data for this study were obtained through self administered questionnaires to fifty (50) women. The women were chosen, half from a working class community and the others from a middle class commumnity in urban Trinidad. The women were chosen by simple quota sampling which sought to select women in the age group 40-64. The questionnaires were self administered. Additional data were gathered from discussions held in three focus groups, with approximately ten women in each group. Discussions were also held with two physicians and two pharmaceutical representatives to attempt to gain information on the role of professionals like themselves in the promotion of HRT in Trinidad. The research showed the majority of the women reporting themselves to be in good health. In relation to hormone replacement therapy, the middle-class women were significantly more informed than were the working-class. The women's knowledge of HRT though was not reflected in their patterns of usage (AU)