Women's Health Initiative results: a glass more empty than full.

Objective: To give perspective to the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) report.

Design: Review of the report with reference to other current literature.

Result(s): Women's Health Initiative was stopped early because the hazard ratio for breast cancer, although not statistically significant, met a preset Data Safety Monitoring Board statistical parameter that mandated a recommendation to close the study. Data from study years 4 and 5 that drive the statistics developed by the Data Safety Monitoring Board may not hold equal biological significance for clinicians and their patients.

Conclusion(s): Women's Health Initiative has provided limited new data. Providers should resist the knee-jerk call to abandon MHT. Together, patient and provider should assess the benefit that MHT is adding/will add to each individual woman's quality of life.