Researchers at the University of North Carolina have concluded that the risk for cardiovascular disease posed by hormone use in menopause, seems to fade after women stop taking the synthetic hormones, estrogen and progestin. However, there may be a small, increased risk of other cancers.
This was the first follow-up study of the landmark Women’s Health Initiative, which involved 16,608 post menopausal women ages 50-79 when they entered the study. That research was halted abruptly in 2002 when more breast cancers and heart attacks were found in hormone users vs. non-users. Nearly 16,000 of those women are now being followed to assess health risks and benefits since hormone treatment was stopped.
After an average of 2.4 years of follow-up, women in the hormone group had about the same number of heart attacks, strokes and blood clots compared with women in the placebo group. However, the research showed that cancer occurred in the hormone group at a rate of 1.56% per year compared with 1.26% in the placebo group, a difference researchers described as “modest.” It amounts to three extra cases per year for every 1,000 women on hormone pills.
The research findings are reported in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association. In a press release issued by Wyeth, the maker of Premarin and Prempro, the company stated “we don’t believe this article provides any new guidance. Hormone therapy remains a good and viable choice for treating menopausal symptoms.”
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