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WASHINGTON - Estrogen may reduce one heart disease threat among postmenopausal women in their 50s, although the therapy increases chances of blood clots and stroke, a study out Wednesday said.
The study found lower levels of calcified plaque in the coronary arteries of women who had their uteruses removed and used estrogen therapy to relieve menopause symptoms such as hot flashes. Coronary artery calcification is one factor leading to heart attack.
But the study's senior author warned that the finding should not be interpreted to mean that estrogen should be used to prevent heart disease.
"Heart disease is complex, and the effect of estrogen on one risk factor does not adequately predict the risk of having a heart attack," said Marcia Stefanick, professor of medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center.
"But this study offers some reassurance for women of menopausal age that it's not unsafe, in terms of the risk of heart attack, to take estrogen, at least for a few years," she said.
Stefanick also warned that hormone therapy still carried other health risks such as the increased likelihood of blood clots and stroke.
The study, published in the June 21 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, was a follow-up to a the US-funded Women's Health Initiative (WHI), the largest study of postmenopausal women.
The WHI study held two hormone therapy trials, one in which women who still had their uteruses were given a combination of estrogen and progestin and another in which women how underwent a hysterectomy were given estrogen alone.
The combination hormone therapy was halted in 2002 when evidence showed that the women faced a greater risk of breast cancer, stroke, blood clots and, in the first year of treatment, heart attack.
The single-hormone therapy stopped in 2004, a year earlier than its scheduled conclusion, because of concerns that estrogen increased the risk of stroke and blood clots, with no benefit for heart disease.
Stefanick, chair of the WHI study's national steering committee, and other WHI investigators have continued to examine the data from both trials.
A second analysis of the estrogen-only trial, which included 1,064 women between the ages of 50 and 79, suggested that there might be some benefit for women in their 50s and those within 10 years of menopause, the new study said. - AFP/ra
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