Research

Hormonal

Current use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) with medium potency oestrogens significantly reduces the risk of hip fracture in postmenopausal women, with risk decreasing by 6% per year of use.

If you are a postmenopausal woman concerned about hip fractures, current use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) with medium potency oestrogens can significantly reduce your risk. The protection increases with the duration of use, decreasing by about 6% for each year you take it. However, if you stop taking HRT for more than five years, most of this protection is lost. Low doses of oestrogen alone may not be effective, so discuss the appropriate dose and regimen with your healthcare provider.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Compared with women who had never used hormone replacement therapy, current users had an odds ratio of 0.35 (95 % confidence interval 0.24 to 0.53) for hip fracture... For every year of therapy, the overall risk decreased by 6% (3% to 9%)
Karl Michaëlsson et al. · BMJ · 1998

Why this rating

Large population-based case-control study (n=1327 cases, n=3262 controls) with high response rates and rigorous adjustment for confounders.

Source

Hormone replacement therapy and risk of hip fracture: population based case-control study

Karl Michaëlsson et al. · BMJ · 1998

DOI 10.1136/bmj.316.7148.1858

case_control · n=4589Cited 259×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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