BEIJING, June 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Estrogen replacement
therapy for younger postmenopausal women is proved to be safe after it was
blamed for a higher risk of heart disease for five years and even breast cancer,
according to a news research result in U.S. released Wednesday.
In 2002, the mammoth Women's Health Initiative
startled millions of women and their doctors with the finding that women who
take menopausal hormone supplements have a higher risk of heart disease.
Now, researchers from the same study say hormone
therapy actually lowers the risk of heart disease for some women, at least while
they're taking the drugs. Women in their 50s taking estrogen pills had 40
percent to 60 percent fewer calcium deposits in their coronary arteries -- a
reliable marker of heart disease.
The new study is the latest attempt to sort out how
menopause hormones affect the risk of cancer, Alzheimer's disease, stroke and
heart problems, and whether those risks and benefits differ by age.
The findings are from an ancillary study of 1,064
women who were 50-59 years of age at the start of the Women's Health
Initiative Estrogen-Alone Trial. Participants were randomly assigned to
either 0.625 milligrams per day of Premarin or placebo.
Participants took the medications for an average of
nearly seven and one-half years. A year after treatment ended, researchers
measured the level of calcium plaque in the women's coronary arteries. Those who
had taken estrogen were 30 to 40 percent less likely to have measurable levels
of coronary artery calcium compared to those on placebo.
"These new results offer some reassurance to younger
women who have had a hysterectomy and who would like to use hormone therapy on a
short-term basis to ease menopausal symptoms," says Dr. Elizabeth G. Nabel,
director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the
National Institutes of Health.
However, in general, experts' advice hasn't changed:
Use hormones only as needed to treat hot flashes, sleeplessness and other
symptoms at the start of menopause. And use the lowest possible dose for the
shortest possible time -- no longer than four or five years.
(Agencies)
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