Until a few years ago, pharmaceutical companies were billing HRT as the virtual ‘fountain of youth’ for women, claiming that it could not only help with the vasomotor symptoms such as hot flashes, but that it could prevent osteoporosis, and possibly even lower your chances of having heart disease, Alzheimer’s,
stroke,
and even certain types of cancers. Many doctors bought the sales pitch,
and were routinely handing out HRT like candy to women as soon as they started peri.