HRT Ups Risk of Stroke
Reported April 30, 2008
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may be putting women at increased risk for stroke, despite the type of hormones they receive or when they begin taking them.
Those conclusions come from researchers who studied women taking part in the Nurses Health Study, which has been gauging health concerns among women since 1976. The women in this study were followed from the beginning of the trial until 2004.
Investigators found women currently taking hormones — either estrogen alone or estrogen plus progestin — had a higher risk for stroke. Overall, women taking estrogen alone were 39 percent more likely to have a stroke. Women in the estrogen/progestin group were 27 percent more likely to have a stroke. Larger doses appeared to raise the risk more than smaller doses.
The risk also held true regardless of when women began taking HRT, although the researchers note few strokes actually occurred in women who started taking HRT at younger ages and those who had been on the therapy for less than five years.
In summary, our findings in the Nurses Health Study indicate that hormone therapy is associated with an increased risk of stroke, regardless of the hormone regime or the timing of hormone therapy initiation, the authors were quoted as saying. However, in younger women, who are at lower absolute risk of stroke, the attributable risk of stroke owing to hormone use is modest, and our data suggest that risk might be further minimized by lower doses and shorter duration of treatment.
SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, 2008;168:861-866
