Risk of Heart Disease and Death from Hormone Therapy Increases with Age
A new study suggests that the risks of coronary heart disease and death associated with hormone replacement therapy increase the longer women wait to begin therapy after the onset of menopause.
The study concluded that heart disease is not significantly increased in women who begin therapy within 10 years of the onset of menopause – on average age 51 – and even showed a trend toward reduced risk. But the longer women wait to begin therapy – into their 60s and 70s – the risks of heart disease and death are increased.
The study also found that hormone therapy increases the risk for stroke and breast cancer regardless of when women begin therapy after the start of menopause.
The new study is a major review of data from the Women’s Health Initiative, a government-sponsored trial in 2002 that tested estrogen and progestin combination therapy, and a second 2004 trial that looked at estrogen therapy alone. These earlier projects did not compare the ages of test participants or when hormone replacement therapy was begun. But they did conclude that combination therapy raised the risk for heart attack, stroke, blood clots and breast cancer after four years of treatment, while estrogen alone raised the risk of stroke, but not of heart attacks or breast cancer after five years of treatment.
The new study was published in the April 3, 2007 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Safe, alternate therapy for menopause symptoms
Meanwhile, women across the country are turning away from hormone replacement therapy because of the well-publicized risks for heart attacks, strokes, breast cancer and increased mortality that were published after the original studies.
Thousands of women are finding that safe alternatives such as nutritional changes, Chiropractic care and Acupuncture treatments are effective. All three of these approaches, alone or in combinations tailored personally for the patient, are proving effective for reducing, and often even eliminating, the uncomfortable “hot flashes” and night sweats associated with menopause.