Towards understanding women's decisions to cease HRT

Drawing upon an exploratory study into women's decisions to stop hormone replacement therapy, this paper discusses the patterns of information seeking and exchange between a convenience sample of 16 white European women and their doctors. Cessation was associated with confused and confusing diagnostic, prescribing and monitoring practices in a context of uncertainty about changing bodily states and the merits of medication. Enhanced openness to dialogue at critical points could enlighten health workers about why individual women stop treatment and enable women more easily to make informed decisions about continuing to take hormone replacement therapy.