Estrogen therapy may lessen artery buildup for women in their 50s
Five years after a landmark study scared millions of women off hormones for menopause symptoms, new research suggests the pills might offer some heart benefits for certain women who start taking them in their 50s.
New results from a sub-study of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) Estrogen-Alone Trial show that younger postmenopausal women who take estrogen-alone hormone therapy have significantly less buildup of calcium plaque in their arteries compared to their peers who did not take hormone therapy. Coronary artery calcium is considered a marker for future risk of coronary artery disease.
Women who took estrogen suffered less hardening of the arteries than those who took placebo pills, researchers reported in the current New England Journal of Medicine. The research concludes that women who started taking estrogen pills in their 50s were 30 percent to 40 percent less likely to have measurable levels of blockage-causing calcium in the arteries that lead to the heart.
It was the latest study in recent months to suggest that women who take hormones at the start of menopause seem to gain some health benefits beyond relief from hot flashes. That is in sharp contrast to women who raise their health risks when they take hormones in their 60s and 70s.
In general, experts’ advice hasn’t changed: Use hormones only as needed to treat hot flashes, sleeplessness and other symptoms at the start of menopause. And use the lowest possible dose for the shortest possible time - no longer than four or five years. Source
Apr 15th, 2008 at 8:32 am
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