How come the WHI showed a decrease in the quality of life?
This is one of the most frustrating and angering parts of the WHI study. In 2003, a paper was published from the WHI saying, not only was there not an increase in the quality of life in women taking hormones, but there was, in fact, a decrease in their quality of life. Many, of my patients called and said “What, are they crazy? How could this possibly be? Of course you feel better when you’re taking hormones especially when you’re having symptoms.” I explained to them that this was precisely the problem. Ninety percent of the women who enrolled in the study had no hot flashes, night sweats, sleeplessness, palpitations, headaches. If they had these symptoms, they would not have been allowed to be in the study!!! You see, this was a “double blind” study. That means that the study subjects would not know whether they were taking drug or placebo, which gives us much better answers to the questions that the study is looking at. So, women with symptoms were not allowed in the study because t
