Is hormone therapy for menopause safe?

Hormone therapy is described as an effective treatment for menopausal symptoms such as hot flushes, night sweats and vaginal dryness. It is also associated with some increased risks, and which risks apply depends on the type of hormone, how it is taken, your age, and how long since menopause began.

That is why there is no single answer to whether it is safe. The balance of benefit and risk is genuinely personal, and it shifts with your own medical history, including anything in your family history of breast cancer, blood clots, stroke or heart disease.

The useful thing you can bring to that conversation is a record: which symptoms, how often, how severe, and how they are changing. Symptom tracking is what hormone therapy is adjusted on, and it is much harder to reconstruct honestly at an appointment weeks later than to note as you go.