A new report released Thursday by pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts reveals that more than half of the women in the United States undergoing hormone replacement therapy (HRT) continued treatment last year despite reports that HRT may cause heart disease, strokes, blood clots and breast cancer. According to the study, which surveyed a sample of 372,777 women using hormone therapy medications, 57 percent of women continued to use HRT in the 4 months after the reports were released.

In July 2002, The National Institute of Health (NIH) stopped a 16,608-woman study on the benefits of hormone replacement therapy three years early, concluding that hormones such as estrogen and progestin place women who still have their uterus at risk of developing invasive breast cancer. The study found that women undergoing HRT also faced an increased risk of stroke, heart disease and blood clots.