Five years ago, in 2002, women were told that estrogen replacement therapy taken along with progestin increased the risk of them developing blood clots, heart attacks and even breast cancer.
Today, the experts claim the reality is somewhat different. Women are now being told that HRT is good for them and may actually protect them from heart disease.
The findings have been chronicled in the June 21 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
As a result of continuous investigation of the original information and a continued study of over 1,000 women in their 50s by the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) Estrogen-Alone Trial it has been found that the hearts of younger women do actually benefit from the therapy and that its administration soon after menopause lowers the risks of stroke and heart attack for them.
This however applies only to women who have had hysterectomies and who do not have any heart problems as yet. Alternatively the same treatment could increase the chances of heart attacks in women who suffer from advanced atherosclerosis.
Besides this, women in their 60s and 70s who start taking HRT would also be raising their risks for heart attacks.
According to Dr. JoAnn Manson from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston , who led the studies, for older women “estrogen may not only increase the risk of clotting and blocking off the blood vessel, which is already narrowed, but it may actually increase the risk of plaque rupture," leading to a heart attack.
As part of the study the women were put into two groups. The first group was placed on estrogen and the second on placebos. The women received this medication for seven and a half years.
In 2005 all the women, who averaged 64 years by then, and who had not been previously checked for arterial calcium accumulation were now scanned. It was found that the arteries of the women taking the estrogen pill were comparatively less hard compared to those in the second group. They concluded that women who had been put on estrogen in their fifties showed a 30-40 percent lower risk of calcium buildup in their coronary arteries.
The scientists are now firmly convinced that women should take the HRT hormone replacement therapy at the onset of menopause and that there is no more a question of for how long they can do this.
Doctor Manson said, however, that although the results would be reassuring to women, and the findings "provide some additional reassurance for women who have been denying themselves relief" from symptoms of menopause such as hot flashes, HRT is not absolutely safe and women should resort to it only when absolutely necessary.
She was not of the opinion that women should take the treatment with a view towards preventing heart attacks.
According to the director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Dr. Elizabeth G. Nabel, the new findings "do not alter the current recommendations that when hormone therapy is used for menopausal symptoms, it should only be taken at the smallest dose and for the shortest time possible."
And executive director of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, Robert Rebar said, "We are clearly learning that the benefits of estrogen in young, healthy, symptomatic, postmenopausal women outweigh the risks."
