FDA reverses decades of guidance on hormone therapy for menopause

The FDA is removing the black box warning on estrogen therapy after two decades. Should it? Women who want to use estrogen to treat menopause symptoms often face a difficult choice. That’s because those hormone treatments contain a “black-box warning.” The Food and Drug Administration uses black box warnings to indicate a medication has potentially life threatening side effects. In the case of estrogen for menopause symptoms, an increased risk of endometrial cancer, cardiovascular disorders, dementia and breast cancer. Well those warnings are going away. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org . Email us at considerthis@npr.org . This episode was produced by Mia Venkat and Erika Ryan. It was edited by Courtney Dorning and Scott Hensley. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy