Chinese School - HRT may prevent heart symptoms in younger women

WORLD / Health

HRT may prevent heart symptoms in younger women

(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-06-22 01:54

Younger women who start taking estrogen as soon as they enter menopause
may be protected from heart disease, researchers said on Wednesday.

A jogger running along the Hudson River in New Jersey in a file photo.
Younger women who start taking estrogen as soon as they enter menopause
may be protected from heart disease, researchers said on Wednesday. They
found that women aged 50 to 59 who took estrogen were 30 percent to 40
percent less likely than women taking placebos to have large amounts of
calcified plaque in their arteries -- a widely accepted predictor of
heart attack risk. [Reuters]

They found that women aged 50 to 59 who took estrogen were 30 percent to
40 percent less likely than women taking placebos to have large amounts
of calcified plaque in their arteries -- a widely accepted predictor of
heart attack risk.

When women took their estrogen religiously, the risk was 60 percent
lower, they reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Dr. JoAnn Manson of Harvard Medical School's Brigham and Women's
Hospital, who led the study, said the results should be reassuring to
women in their 50s who have been taking estrogen for their menopausal
symptoms.

But, she stressed, hormone replacement therapy, or HRT, is not completely
safe and women should not take it unless they have a good reason to.

"Hormone therapy should not be used for the express purpose of preventing
cardiovascular disease due to other known risks, and it should be limited
to treatment of menopausal symptoms at the lowest dose for the shortest
duration necessary," Manson said in a telephone interview.

"So I do not believe it should be started in all women for the purpose of
protecting their hearts."

Manson led the original Women's Health Initiative study, which found in
2002 that hormone replacement therapy raised the risk of blood clots,
breast cancer and heart attacks.

Many women stopped taking HRT, although researchers at the time noted
that many women in their study were well past menopause, with an average
age of 63.

"There are still many women out there with moderate to severe symptoms
who are not seeking treatment because they are concerned that estrogen
could increase the risk of heart disease and other health problems,"
Manson said in a telephone interview.

REASSURING EVIDENCE

Manson led a new analysis of the original study. The new finding, based
on 1,064 women, "does provide some additional reassurance for women who
have been denying themselves relief," she said.

Robert Rebar, executive director of the American Society for Reproductive
Medicine, said, "We are clearly learning that the benefits of estrogen in
young, healthy, symptomatic, postmenopausal women outweigh the risks."

A medical consultant for Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, which makes the hormone
therapy products used in the study, told reporters in a telephone
briefing that many women should be put on estrogen when they hit
menopause and stay on it indefinitely.

Howard Hodis, a heart specialist at the University of Southern
California, said there is "absolutely no evidence that if you start a
women (on estrogen) at menopause at, say age 51, and continue that until
she's 80, that her risk goes up as she gets older."

The only important statistic, he said, is that continued estrogen therapy
helps women live longer.

"If you have a drug that reduces overall mortality, why wouldn't we use
it? It's the best product for reducing bone loss," Hodis said.

Michelle Warren of the Columbia University College of Physicians and
Surgeons, another Wyeth consultant, said it is impossible to know when to
stop taking the hormones.

"There are downsides to stopping estrogen," she said, suggesting that the
new study shows that heart disease may accelerate if women stop. Other
studies show bone loss becomes a problem as well.

"If you've been on the hormone since the time of menopause, I'm not
worried anymore," Warren said.

Top World News 

� US military: 14 troops killed in Baghdad

� US nuclear envoy visits N.Korea

� Nigerian troops kill 12 at Italian oil facility

� Bush eyes Blair for Mideast peace role

� Japan changes name of Iwo Jima

Today's Top News 

� Shanxi governor makes self-criticism for slave labor

� China urges patience on yuan reform

� Man confesses to thallium poisoning

� China agrees to cancel Iraqi debt

� US curbs on high-tech exports to hurt trade

Most Commented/Read Stories in 48 Hours

Learn Chinese, Chinese Online Class, Chinese Course, Learning Materials, Mandarin audio lessons, Chinese writing lessons, Chinese vocabulary lists, About chinese characters, News in Chinese, Go to China, Travel to China, Study in China, Teach in China, Dictionaries, Learn Chinese Painting, Your name in Chinese, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese songs, Chinese proverbs, Chinese poetry, Chinese tattoo, Beijing 2008 Olympics, Mandarin Phrasebook, Chinese editor, Pinyin editor, China Travel, Travel to Beijing, Travel to Tibet