No HRT Benefit for Older Women
Reported July 16, 2007
ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — A new study reveals hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for older women is not beneficial and may increase the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Researchers, working from centers in England, Australia and New Zealand, studied 5,692 women with an average age of 63 and who were an average of 15 years post-menopause. Randomly split into two groups, the women either took a daily hormone replacement pill or a placebo pill as part of the Women’s International Study of long Duration Oestrogen after Menopause (WISDOM).
After following the women for a year, the researchers report women taking combined hormone therapy, which included estrogen and progestogen, were significantly more likely to experience major cardiovascular events (angina, heart attack or sudden coronary death) and blood clots.
Researchers report HRT confers no overall disease prevention benefit to women who start therapy many years after menopause. These finding do not necessarily apply to younger women who may choose to take HRT shortly after menopause or a hysterectomy, according to study authors.
The findings are similar to what researchers from the U.S. Women’s Health Initiative study reported. Both studies were stopped prematurely because of the adverse effects being found in participants.
“The Women’s Health Initiative study and WISDOM have not answered the question about long term benefits and risks of hormone replacement therapy in the large majority of women who start therapy around menopause for symptom control,” write study authors. “If there is a menopausal window of therapeutic benefit its upper limit has not been well defined and is likely to vary with arterial health and associated risk factors such as obesity and metabolic syndrome.”
SOURCE: The British Medical Journal, published online July 11, 2007
