Estrogen May Lower Younger Women's Heart Risk

Findings for postmenopausal women in their 50s differ from prior HRT study involving those over 60.

By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter
Wednesday, June 20, 2007; 12:00 AM

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

WEDNESDAY, June 20 (HealthDay News) -- Women in their 50s who take estrogen therapy have lower levels of dangerous calcium deposits in their arteries, suggesting they're at reduced heart disease risk, researchers say.

The study results should reassure younger women who use supplemental estrogen to lessen their menopausal symptoms, but it shouldn't be seen as a license to use hormone-replacement therapy to prevent heart disease, experts said.

The findings should "provide reassurance to younger women who are wrestling with the decision, that hormones are unlikely to have an adverse effect on the heart and may even slow the early stages of plaque build-up," said lead researcher Dr. JoAnn Manson, chief of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, both in Boston.

However, "the study should not be interpreted to mean that women should take estrogen to prevent cardiovascular disease. There are other risks to hormones, including the risk of blood clots in the legs," noted Manson, who is also co-author of Hot Flashes, Hormones and Your Health.

The study, published in the June 21 New England Journal of Medicine, "becomes very important but not for prevention and not for treatment [of heart disease], but to alleviate the fears of people in the context of developing heart disease if they are taking HRT," added Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, director of women and heart disease at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. "Women aged 50 to 59 who are having [menopausal] symptoms can really say, 'I can take HRT without getting heart disease.' "

Statements from numerous organizations echoed those sentiments.

"The results... are very encouraging," said a prepared statement from the International Menopause Society. The group also noted that the CT scans used in the trial were performed at a mean age of just under 65 years of age. That "suggests a new 'safety margin' for age and duration of estrogen therapy, as women can be reassured that estrogen therapy is cardioprotective at least until age 65," the society said.