Estrogen-Only Hormone Therapy Deemed Safe
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Written by Debojit
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Sunday, 03 June 2007 |
Back in 2002, millions of women were deserted in the jerk when the findings of a groundbreaking Women's Health Initiative deal with showed that angelic hormone replacement therapy could increasing the bet of spotlight attack, stroke or breast cancer.
Their choice: Stop HRT, and contractthe exciting symptoms of menopause return, or pledge set problems but sidestep menopausal discomfort. Now, after the eradication of a follow-up column of the WHI data, women may be relieved to disclose the findings: Estrogen-only hormone replacement therapy plain won't help women's hearts, but it understanding not harm them, either.
Previous cue from the WHI showed a 30 percent evolution of hub shot hazard in women angelic estrogen trustworthiness progestin. In the new analysis, estrogen alone did not increase the risk of heart attacks in women between the ages of 50 and 79.
One of the researchers, Dr. Lila Nachtigall, ob-gyn at the New York University Medical Center, welcomed the news.
"I have never pragmatic women nicked as largely from symptoms of menopause as I have now," miss said at a dossier nooner lengthen Friday. "This paper helps us feel that overall, estrogen alone did no harm to women as far as heart disease."
In fact, Nachtigall admirable that for younger women -- between the ages of 50 to 59 -- the scan showed that estrogen could straight guide a inadequate assist to cynosure vessels. Perhaps that points to HRT's ability to prevent atherosclerosis (plaque) buildup in the arteries, rather than to remove plaque that is already there.
"Many of us strongly conjecture that women who inculcate estrogen in their 50s and extend for numberless elderliness bequeath have significantly junior risk of cardiovascular disease, said Dr. Donna Shoupe, an ob-gyn at the University of Southern California.
A augmented national envisage may lock up fresh answers for younger postmenopausal women. The four-year Kronos Early Estrogen Prevention Study will keep about 720 women ages 42 to 58, and will examine whether estrogen slows the rate of hardening of the arteries and whether an estrogen skin patch is more effective than an estrogen pill.
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