ATLANTA — Five years after a landmark study scared millions of women off hormones for menopause symptoms, new research suggests the pills may offer some heart benefits for certain younger women who start taking them in their 50s.
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Women who took estrogen suffered less hardening of the arteries than those who took dummy pills, researchers reported in today's New England Journal of Medicine.
It was the latest study in recent months to suggest that women who take hormones at the start of menopause seem to gain some health benefits beyond relief from hot flashes. That is in sharp contrast to women who raise their health risks when they take hormones in their 60s and 70s.
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.
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 research concludes that women who started taking estrogen pills in their 50s were 30 to 40 percent less likely to have measurable levels of blockage-causing calcium in the arteries that lead to the heart.
The research is based on the Women's Health Initiative, a huge federal study started in the 1990s that focused on the risks and benefits of menopause hormones for women.
Risks for stroke and blood clots remain with continued hormone use, noted Dr. Nanette Wenger, an Emory University expert on heart disease in women. Still, the latest findings should provide some comfort to menopausal women who are considering taking estrogen, she said. "This is quite an important study.”
Here is a look at how hormone advice has changed over time as the federal Women's Health Initiative has been analyzed in more detail.
•July 2002 — Officials halt a phase of the study after doctors found higher rates of breast cancer, heart attack and stroke in women taking estrogen with progestin.
•May 2003 — A new study of the federal data finds that in women 65 and older, taking hormones for years raised the risk of Alzheimer's.
•September 2003 — A study finds estrogen-progestin pills do not reduce — and might increase — the risk of ovarian cancer.
•March 2004 — Federal officials stop a phase of the women's health study that looked at estrogen alone after finding that women taking it had an increased risk of stroke, and possibly more dementia.
•April 2007 — A study of the federal women's study data shows hormones did not raise heart attack risks for women in their 50s but did raise breast cancer and stroke risks.
•May 2007 — A new review of the data concludes that those who took hormones before age 65 reduced their risk of dementia by half.
•June 2007 — A review of the study data shows a lower risk for hardening of the arteries for women who took hormones in their 50s.
The Associated Press
