CANDOUR

Communication ANd Decision-making arOund DURation of Hormone Replacement Therapy.

The aim of the CANDOUR study is to better understand how long women in Wales use hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for and how women and their doctors make decisions about continuing or stopping it.

Current UK guidelines say HRT decisions should be individual and made together with healthcare professionals. But many women tell us this isn’t always happening. Some feel under pressure to stop HRT by age 60 or after 10 years, even when it’s still helping them.

The project brings together expertise from several research centres with funding from Health and Care Research Wales in Cardiff University,  including Wales Centre for Primary and Emergency Care Research (PRIME) , Women’s Health Research Wales (WHRW) and Centre for Trials Research (CTR), alongside colleagues from the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and in collaboration with the Health and Care Research Wales Evidence Centre.

Strong public involvement will be central to CANDOUR. The study partners with Fair Treatment for the Women of Wales (FTWW), a national advocacy organisation that brings crucial lived experience and policy expertise and two public research partners. The public involvement partners will coproduce study materials, support recruitment, and help shape the decision support tools developed.

What we’re doing

• Reviewing existing research on how and why women stop HRT
• Listening to women and doctors through surveys, interviews, and focus groups
• Co‑producing a new communication tool  with public partners, including FTWW, to improve discussions about HRT duration
• Creating a plan to introduce and test this tool in practice

Why it matters
We want to understand real-life HRT practice in Wales, identify barriers to personalised care, and support better shared decision‑making between women and doctors. Ultimately, this work aims to give women and doctors clearer information, help women to have better conversations with their doctors, and more control over their menopause care.

As the study progresses we will share insights and outcomes on the study webpage, with women’s organisations, healthcare providers, and policymakers across Wales.