Health & Fitness

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Q) I heard there was a new study about hormone replacement therapy. What were the findings?

A) Hormone replacement was a mainstay in helping millions of women cope with the hot flashes, mood swings, vaginal atrophy and other symptoms of peri- and post-menopause. 

This practice fell dramatically out of favour with the publishing of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study which showed that oral hormone therapy (i.e. estrogen and progesterone pills) may slightly increase the risk of breast cancer after five years of continuous therapy, and increases the risk of stroke shortly after onset of therapy.  

This has left many women to struggle through their symptoms on their own out of fear of the side effects of this therapy.  

Now, a new study has been published which examines hormone therapy when it is given via a patch (as opposed to a pill) on the risk of suffering a stroke. This study used the United Kingdom’s Research Database (which has more than six million patients in it) and looked at women between the ages of 50 and 79.  

The results surprised many experts in that low-dose hormone transdermal therapy (i.e. estrogen was contained via a patch) did not increase the risk of stroke in women versus similar women who did not use hormone therapy at all. In fact, the risk of stroke decreased in the low-dose group versus non-users but the results were not strong enough to imply that it might have a stroke protective effect.  

In contrast, high-dose hormone transdermal therapy was associated with an increased risk of stroke, a risk that is at least equal to, if not higher, than the risks associated with oral HRT use.Transdermal patches were considered low-dose if they contained 50 ug or less of estrogen. 

Research also indicated that the risk of stroke did not increase when a progesterone was added (progesterones prevent cervical cancer in women who have had hysterectomies) and might even decrease further.  

This study provides strong evidence that for those women who are suffering from debilitating post-menopausal symptoms, low-dose transdermal therapy is a safe and effective way to relieve their symptoms for at least five years, after which hopefully the therapy will no longer be necessary.

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Monday, June 14, 2010