Gynecologists are afraid of prescribing hormone replacement to endometrial/ovarian cancer survivors despite national guidelines—a survey in Sweden

Figures & data

Table 1. Characteristics of the respondents.

	Gynecologists		Gynecologic oncologists		p value^a
	n = 262	%	n = 24	%
Age <50 years	106	40.1%	12	50%	0.39
Female	191	72.9%	16	66.7%	0.48
Specialization, completed survey (started survey)	262 (362)		24 (28)
Gynecologic oncologist	30 (30)	11.5%	19 (19)	79.2%
Tumor surgeon	20 (20)	7.6%	3 (3)	12.5%
General gynecology	136 (148)	52%	0	0%
Other (obs/repro)	42 (75)	16%	1 (1)	4.2%
Resident	20 (74)	7.6%	0 (4)	0%
No answer of title	14 (15)	5.3%	1 (1)	4.2%
Work location					0.0062
University hospital	86	32.8%	15	62.5%
Non-university hospital	130	49.6%	7	29.2%
Private practice	37	14.1%	1	4.2%
No answer	9	3.4%	0	0%

^aFisher’s exact test.

Figure 1. Percentage of gynecologic oncologists (blue) and gynecologists (red) who agree/strongly agree that estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) is contraindicated (no ERT), prescribe systemic ERT or local estrogen therapy. Non-significant differences between gynecologic oncologists and gynecologists (Fisher’s exact test).

Figure 2. Percentage of gynecologic oncologists (blue) and gynecologists (red) who agree/strongly agree that estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) is contraindicated (no ERT) and drug of choice in the high-risk endometrial case. *p = 0.039; **p = 0.011 (Fisher’s exact test).

Table 2. Comparison of prescription intentions between Swedish, Japanese, and German doctors.

	Sweden		Japan		Germany
	Low-risk	High-risk	Low-risk	High-risk	Low-risk	High-risk
Number (n)	286	286	363	363	165	165
ERT not contraindicated	47%	28%	65%	49%	46%	25%
Systemic ERT	28%^a^,b	33%^c	43%a	37%	13%^b	18%^c
Local ERT	56%		15%		67%
SSRI		43%^d		0%		29%^d
Phytoestrogen/naturopathy		5%	2%	3%		45%
Second opinion	18%	26%	2%	3%	36%	50%

Comparison of prescription intention between Swedish, Japanese, and German respondents for ERT in low-risk versus high-risk endometrial cancer cases.

^ap < 0.00001; ^bp = 0.00016; ^cp = 0.0007; ^dp = 0.004 (Fisher’s exact test).