Increased Risks from Hormone Replacement Therapy

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Experts once thought combination hormone therapy would help protect menopausal women from heart disease, but one study shows the opposite.

By Marsha McCulloch

Experts once thought combination hormone therapy (estrogen plus progestin) would help protect postmenopausal women from cardiovascular disease and breast cancer, but in 2002 the U.S. Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) found combination therapy increased risk of these diseases. In March, WHI researchers reported that cardiovascular risk had diminished about three years after women discontinued hormone therapy, but overall risk of cancer remained high.

“These follow-up results of women who had used combination hormone therapy or placebo for an average of 5.6 years confirm what the WHI trial itself suggested: Combination hormone therapy shouldn’t be used for chronic disease prevention in healthy, postmenopausal women,” says Gerardo Heiss, M.D., Ph.D., the lead author of the report and professor of epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “It is, however, reasonable to use hormone therapy for brief periods of time at the lowest effective dose for treatment of menopausal symptoms, as stated in the current clinical guidelines.”

Researchers will continue to follow WHI participants at least through 2010. For more details, visit the Women’s Health Initiative.