Estrogen Iffy in Lowering Heart Risk

A new study casts doubt on whether estrogen therapy lowers heart-disease risk in postmenopausal women.

Data from the Women’s Health Initiative — which was halted in spring 2004 due to a possible higher stroke risk in women taking hormones — showed that hormone replacement therapy doesn’t appear to reduce the risk of heart attack or coronary death in healthy postmenopausal women.

But the data did suggest a lower heart-disease risk in one age group: 50 to 59 years.

The research appears in the Feb. 13 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

The George Washington University scientists reviewed data from 10,739 women aged 50 to 79 years who had undergone hysterectomy and were assigned to take either conjugated equine estrogens — a mix of several estrogens — or a placebo.

Data from the estrogen-only portion of the WHI study showed women taking hormones experienced 201 coronary events, which included heart attacks and coronary deaths, while those taking placebo had 217 heart-related events.

However, for 1,396 women 50 to 59 years, coronary revascularization — which is the re-establishment of blood supply to the heart — was less frequent among women taking estrogen, as were several combined endpoints, such as myocardial infarction, coronary death and revascularization.

This trial may have been unable to demonstrate a significant difference in the risk of myocardial infarction or coronary death by age group because of the low event rate in young women, the researchers said.