Medical Decisions, Estrogen and Aging

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xix

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2. Hormone Therapy: Biological, Social, and Medical Context

   Pages 5-23

3. Demythologized Human Decision-Making

   Pages 25-47

4. Autonomic Regulation, Heart, and Strokes

   Pages 49-67

5. Bad News—Good News: Cancers and Bone

   Pages 69-86

6. Brain, Mood, and Cognition

   Pages 87-103

7. Physicians' and Women's Responses to HT Findings: Implications for Continuous Learning and Self-Corrective Inquiry for Physicians

   Pages 105-123

8. Back Matter

   Pages 125-178

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If you are a woman between the ages of 45 and 75 and are trying to decide whether to try, or stick with, hormone therapy (HT), or if you are a physician with patients fitting this description, this book is for you – unless you are looking for a simple answer. If you are looking for a simple answer, you can go to the web site of one of the companies that manufactures hormones or makes money by administering hormone therapy (e. g. , AntiAgingGroup. com), or you can go to the we bsite of an organization that advocates ‘natural’ aging (e. g. , the Inter National Organization to Reclaim Menopause; Inorm. org). Any impartial advisor, however, is going to admit that the answer isn’t at all clear-cut. Jay Schulkin, I believe the reader will find, is such an impartial advisor, and he is going to take you several steps beyond simply acknowledging the ambiguity; he’s going to educate you about the biology, history, sociology, business, and ethics of hormone replacement therapy. As a prominent scientist doing research on hormones, a medical researcher, an expert on decision making, he is the ideal guide to the intricacies of the topic. You might think that all of this sounds superfluous for making an informed decision: “Just the facts, please.

• Aging
• Estrogen
• Hormone Therapy
• Medical Decision Making
• Philosophy of Medicine
• health
• therapy

• Georgetown University Medical School, Washington, USA

  Jay Schulkin

Policies and ethics