本文以歷史脈絡釐清為何在2002年七月美國國家衛生研究院會停止原本預定十三年目前才進行到第八年的長期追蹤研究,表示美國公共衛生與醫學界對HRT藥物實驗的認真與用心,強調藥物只適合用於短期治療而非長期預防用,也看到民間婦女團體和女性主義學者在監督藥物不使之濫用的貢獻;以此反觀國內反應,顯示出我國醫界或部分衛生署官員對公共衛生流行病學調查的不了解,對相對風險觀念的不明白,以及對預防醫學的誤解,對健康促進的不重視,對婦女團體的排斥,對性別分析和婦女健康的忽視,更缺少藥物倫理的監督,也輕忽衛生署應有的職責。再次提出更年期婦女健康是公共衛生需關注的議題。
This review focuses on the July 2002 JAMA paper submitted by the Women's Health Initiative investigators. The investigators (representing the National Institute of Health, USA) seriously announced their suggestion that the 13-year long Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) research needs to be discontinued in its 8th year because its harms outweighed its benefits. They emphasize HRT is oily beneficial as a short-term remedy but not for long-term prevention. This drastic action obviously reveals the conscientiousness and integrity of the US researchers. From the historical point of review, we discovered how the women activist organization aid feminist scholars in USA monitored the trial of HRT, which reduced the rate of abuse. However, the response of the medical sector in Taiwan, primarily gynecologists, has been defensive. The Department of Health, unlike the NIH of USA, have neither responded to the investigation in time nor have they responded properly. They have not provided necessary information on health care for menopausal women. Both the medical field aid the DOH misconceive the prevention aid treatment issue; misunderstand the cost/benefit ratio of epidemiological studies on clinical trials, neglect the reminding of women's organization; bypass the study of gender analysis and women's health; lack the monitoring of the medical ethic, and neglect its basic duty. The results show that menopause related to women's health should be an essential issue of public health policy in Taiwan.