Article: WHI Substudy finds Hormone Therapy May Lower Heart Attack Risk in Certain Women

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Article: WHI Substudy finds Hormone Therapy May Lower Heart Attack Risk in Certain Women
Estrogen protects the hearts of women who take the hormone early in menopause, new data from the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) suggest.

"This is another level of evidence for younger women that estrogen does not harm the heart and may have a heart benefit," study researcher JoAnn E. Manson, MD, PhD, chief of preventive medicine at Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital, tells WebMD.

During menopause, a woman's ovaries stop making estrogen. Many women develop life-disrupting symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats. Estrogen replacement is the most effective treatment for these symptoms. Women with an intact uterus risk uterine cancer from this treatment unless estrogen is balanced with another hormone, progestin.

The new findings come from a WHI substudy of women who had had a hysterectomy and thus received estrogen-only hormone treatment (Premarin, in the WHI study). But Michelle Warren, MD, says that women taking combination hormone therapy do not need to worry about increased risk of heart disease -- provided they start treatment soon after menopause.

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