Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) Overview

Hormone replacement therapy can be either estrogen alone (called estrogen replacement therapy, or ERT), or estrogen and progesterone combined. This combination is referred to as hormone replacement therapy (HRT). HRT is used to treat symptoms of menopause such as hot flashes, sleep disturbances, and vaginal dryness. While once widely used, HRT now has a more limited role in its use for treatment of menopausal symptoms because of concerns about its safety.

Hormone replacement therapy can also be used to treat other disorders involving hormones, and can include supplementing testosterone. It can be used to treat hypothyroidism, as well as hormone-related cancers such as prostate and breast cancer.

HRT is also used by transgender people to transition to the gender with which they identify, and by intersex people to maintain physical qualities of the gender that they were assigned at birth.