Understanding Hormone Therapy Terms: HRT, MHT, or EPT?
If you’ve been exploring options for managing midlife hormonal changes, you’ve likely come across terms like HRT, MHT, and EPT. But what do they mean? Are they interchangeable? And is one more accurate than the others? Let’s break it down.
HRT: Hormone Replacement Therapy
MHT: Menopause Hormone Therapy
EPT: Estrogen, Progesterone, Testosterone
Each term is used to describe hormone therapy during midlife, but they carry slightly different implications. Here’s why the terminology matters and where the medical community is heading.
HRT: A Misnomer? Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) has been a common term for decades, but it’s falling out of favor. The word "replacement" suggests that the therapy fully restores hormone levels to those of a woman’s reproductive years, which isn’t quite accurate. Instead, hormone therapy provides doses within a therapeutic range to ease symptoms like hot flashes, mood swings, or sleep issues and to support long-term health, such as reducing risks of osteoporosis or heart disease. It’s less about "replacing" and more about optimizing.
MHT: A Focus on Menopause Menopause Hormone Therapy (MHT) is another term you’ll see, but it has its own limitations. MHT implies that hormone therapy is only for postmenopausal women. In reality, research shows that starting hormone therapy during perimenopause—the transitional years leading up to menopause—can be especially beneficial for managing symptoms and supporting overall health. By focusing solely on menopause, MHT overlooks this critical window.
EPT: A Clearer Choice Enter Estrogen, Progesterone, Testosterone (EPT), a term gaining traction among clinicians and researchers. EPT simply describes the hormones typically prescribed during midlife hormone therapy. It’s straightforward, avoids misleading implications, and applies to both perimenopause and postmenopause. This clarity and accuracy make EPT the preferred term in the scientific community.
Why It Matters Choosing the right term isn’t just about semantics—it reflects how we understand and approach hormone therapy. By moving toward EPT, we embrace a more precise and inclusive way to talk about this treatment, ensuring women get the information and care that best suits their needs during midlife.
-FVH