Brief report: attitudes toward hormone therapy after the Women's Health Initiative: a comparison of internists and gynecologists.

In the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), postmenopausal women receiving combination hormone therapy (HT) experienced more adverse outcomes than placebo recipients. To determine whether gynecologists and internists interpreted the WHI differently, we conducted a survey in which physicians responded to a hypothetical asymptomatic woman who asks whether to continue HT. In response to this scenario, gynecologists were more likely than internists to hold permissive views about prescribing HT (66% vs 35%; P<.001). These results suggest that gynecologists may be less concerned than internists about the adverse events associated with HT, or that gynecologists have stronger beliefs about benefits of HT.