JGIM LETTERS TO THE EDITOR provider beliefs about the benefits and risks of HRT and to learn Physician Gender and Estrogen more about how women and men providers counsel about HRT. In- Replacement Therapy vestigation of hypotheses such as those described herein is essen- To the Editor:—We read the findings of the study “Effect of Physi- tial if physicians are to provide the most equitable care possible for cian Gender on the Prescription of Estrogen Replacement Ther- our patients.—ANDREA LACROIX, PhD, KATHERINE NEWTON, PhD, apy” with interest. A recent analysis of physician prescribing and ELIZABETH PHELAN, MD, Center for Health Studies, Group practices of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) at Group Health Health Cooperative, Seattle, WA. Cooperative (GHC) (unpublished data) revealed no differences in prescribing patterns by gender. Using files available at GHC, we REFERENCE identified 243 providers with an assigned panel of primary care patients. From these panels, we identified all women aged 45 to 1. Seto TB, Taira DA, Davis RB, Safran C, Phillips RS. Effect of physi- 65. Women who filled at least two prescriptions for oral or trans- cian gender on the prescription of estrogen replacement therapy. J dermal estrogens (documented via computerized pharmacy Gen Intern Med. 1996;11:197–203. records) between April 1, 1995 and March 31, 1996 were consid- ered current HRT users. The mean proportion of women patients who were current HRT users was 31.5 (SD 11.8) for women physi- In reply:—We appreciate the comments of Dr. Lacroix and col- cians and 32.8 (SD 10.6) for...