Short chronology of the history of sex hormones, production, and use of oestrogen for menopause, and cancer
| Decade | Key issues |
|---|---|
| 1930s | The commercial production and sale of hormones as drugs42,43 was accompanied by debates on the potential danger of induction of malignancies.25–28 |
| 1940s–1950s | Doubts on the safety of menopausal hormones.29–32 Premarin is nevertheless a commercial success, as women increasingly began to use menopausal hormones.146,147 |
| 1960s | Changes in women’s status and life expectancy encourage menopausal therapy: publication of Feminine forever (1966)52: HRT is presented as a therapy that allows women to free themselves from the malediction of oestrogen loss, and to conserve femininity.6–10 |
| 1970s | The rise of women’s movement and women’s health movement.66,138,139,141–144 Rise of feminist criticism of the pill and of HRT,45,66,67,131 in context of broader concerns about dangers of “hormone therapy” (including DES).41,148–150 The description of increase in the incidence of endometrial cancer in women who used menopausal oestrogen (1975)76,77 leads to the halving of the US number of HRT prescriptions.151 |
| 1980s | The widespread introduction of progestin-oestrogen treatment for women with an intact uterus. HRT is increasingly presented as a preventive drug: from “young and sexy forever,” the emphasis shifts to “healthy forever.”49,53,56 From early 1980s on, a steady increase in use of HRT (as measured in number of prescriptions and sale of drugs), despite the persistence of critical voices.35–37 At the end of 1980s, HRT consumption exceeded the pre-1975 volume.152 |
| 1990s | The steady increase in HRT uptake continues. This treatment is strongly promoted by most of doctors, and sustained, especially in the USA, by the ethos of individualised preventive medicine.9,10,40,80,126–128 It continues, nevertheless, to be questioned by scientists, feminist scholars, and advocates, in their overlapping permutations.39,40,46–50,63,64,66,78,153,154 WHI—the first large scale randomised prospective clinical trial of menopausal hormones—starts, partly as an answer to feminist criticism of HRT.155 |
| 2000s | 2002—HERS results on cardiovascular disease are surprising.2 Early interruption of WHI, after the finding of an excess of cancers and cardiovascular incidents in the experimental branch.1 In 2002–2003, a sharp decrease in HRT prescriptions in English speaking countries.12–15 |