Hormone therapy and the medical encounter

Abstract

HT AND THE MEDICAL ENCOUNTER: A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF WOMEN'S EXPERIENCES AbstractObjective: The aim of this article is to explore women's experiences in biomedical consultations for menopause symptoms, with a particular focus on how Hormone Therapy (HT) featured during the encounter. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 39 women and data were analysed using a qualitative strategy referred to as Thematic Networks. Results: Several participants whose menopause started before the period of the HT 'scares' described being 'put on' HT as a matter of course, even where their symptoms were mild. By contrast, some of those presenting in the more recent time period with what they deemed to be severe symptoms were more likely to describe scenarios whereby they pressured their doctors for a HT prescription. Once on HT, participants were found to be far from passive recipients of a biomedical 2 'treatment' but rather embarked on an active dialogue with themselves about how to manage distressing aspects of the menopause. Conclusion: that using HT did not tend to spell a transition to biomedical advocacy, in spite of its reported effectiveness in moderating bodily distresses. Rather, HT tended to retain a tentative status as temporary relief, and not a long-term panacea.

Knowledge, Perceptions and Information about Hormone Therapy (HT) among Menopausal Women: A Systematic Review and Meta-Synthesis

“…There was good (κ = 0.64) agreement between MFT and YCT on choosing the final 77 applicable full-text studies for potential inclusion. Of these studies, 40 were excluded for various reasons, leaving 37 studies [5], [7], [28], [29], [30], [31], [32], [33], [34], [35], [36], [37], [38], [39], [40], [41], [42], [43], [44], [45], [46], [47], [48], [49], [50], [51], [52], [53], [54], [55], [56], [57], [58], [59], [60], [61], [62] included in our analyses (See figure 1). …”

“…We included eleven qualitative studies [40], [53], [54], [55], [56], [57], [58], [59], [60], [61], [62] and 27 quantitative studies [7], [28], [29], [30], [31], [32], [33], [34], [35], [36], [37], [38], [39], [40], [41], [42], [43], [44], [45], [46], [47], [48], [49], [50], [51], [52], [63], reporting 31 independent studies. One study [40] included both qualitative and quantitative study.…”

“…Table 1 shows the characteristics of the populations in the qualitative studies and Table 2 shows the methodology of these studies. Among these, 4 studies [40], [56], [60], [62] used focus groups (n = 248), five [53], [54], [57], [58], [59] used semi-structured interviews (n = 151), one [61] used both focus group and semi-structured interviews (n = 40) and one [55] used mainly open-ended questioning (n = 127). The attitudes identified towards HT are listed in Table 3.…”