@daisy17 My general rule of thumb is that taking anything long-term in the way of pharma drugs should be researched, and you need to be comfortable that there is no other way to manage your health issues than taking artificial man-made chemicals into your system. So far, I have nixed HRT way before the medical industry gave it up, Osteoporosis drugs, cholesterol drugs (caused short-term memory problems), and the same with the cheap drug for urine leakage control. I have COPD, mild to moderate, and take maintenance medication, but I got off the steroids due to side effects like eye problems, and found one that has no steroids. I wasn't offered as a first choice by my lung doctor, and an occasional rescue inhaler. The Dr wants me to get CT scans annually as an early detection for lung cancer, but no way one scan is like 100 X-rays of exposure to radiation on my lungs, which are compromised already, can actually contribute to getting lung cancer. So the prevention screening is actually putting me at risk! My eye Dr wants me to take Vit A for my eyes, and I learned that artificial Vit A can increase my chances of lung cancer too. I knew someone in their forties hadn't smoked in over 15 years, worked out, ate right, and got lung cancer, and he couldn't understand how he got lung cancer. I'm wondering now how many high-potency mega doses of vitamins he was taking. You have to participate in your own healthcare; we have the resources now to research what we are being asked to introduce to our bodies that is not natural in the long term. That's why you have to keep going back to the doctor for check-ups, because they have to watch for side effects on what they're prescribing, and then they send that data to the pharma companies. Don't be a lab rat for Big Pharma. I've seen their salespeople leaving my doctor's office with their sample cases.