INTRODUCTION - LONG-TERM HORMONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY

Nationwide study will examine the benefits and risks of long-term hormone replacement therapy, the role of low-fat diet modification using behavioral change and calcium and vitamin D supplementation in preventing disease. The WHI will include some 160,000 postmenopausal women in large and small communities nationwide.

Over the next decade, all of these research efforts should begin to provide much needed answers for many of the questions concerning disease prevention and treatment in women. Yet, even if the major gaps in medical knowledge of women's health are addressed through research during the 1990s, the fact that there will always be differences between men and women because of each gender's normal physiology and hormonal milieu, dictates a continuing need for women's health research. With women now demanding better care and increased understanding of their health concerns by all health professionals, women's health must continue to be a high priority for the scientific and health care communities.

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