Attitudes Toward Postmenopausal Long-Term Hormone Therapy

In this article we address the question of why postmenopausal women undergo hormone therapy. Thirty-five women aged 46 to 75 years living in Bremen (Germany) and taking postmenopausal hormones for at least 12 months were interviewed. Following Fritz Schütze, the interviews were analyzed according to a reconstructive analytical procedure. Five different types of users were identified. They differed from each other in terms of their reasons for using hormones, their expectations of this type of therapy, and their personal habits and circumstances, including an integrity-preserving attitude, a performance-oriented attitude, a searching attitude, a faith-in-medicine attitude, and a benefit-generalizing attitude. The interviews show that there is a need for target-oriented counseling, taking into account the individual attitudes toward menopause and postmenopausal hormone therapy.