Heart Disease &
  Hormone Replacement Therapy

At least one way hormone replacement therapy protects women from heart disease, a multi-center Dutch team reports, involves slowing the atherosclerotic process. Atherosclerosis is the hardening of the arteries.
 
The researchers studied 1,103 postmenopausal women between the ages of 55 and 80 to assess the relationship between hormone replacement therapy and hardening of the carotid artery. The carotid artery feeds blood to the heart muscle.
 
In the December, 1999 issue of Stroke, the investigators report that women who had taken hormones at any time in their lives for at least 1 year did not have as much hardening of their carotid artery as women who had never used hormones. There was no such association for women who had taken hormone replacement therapy for less than one year.
 
Adjustment for diabetes, cholesterol levels, and frequency of visits to a healthcare facility did not alter their results, the researchers say.
 
“Our results suggest that past use [of hormone replacement therapy] is associated with a favorable atherogenic status,” the authors write. They call for randomized trials “… designed to take the distinct effects [of hormone replacement therapy] on the short and longer term into account.”

 

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