Endocrinologists concerned for menopausal women.

2003 JUL 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) is concerned that widespread media coverage of new studies published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) may cause unnecessary fear and worry among menopausal women.

The publication of two Women's Health Initiative (WHI) sub-studies from the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study (WHIMS) related to cognition and dementia in the May 28, 2003, issue of JAMA reports further negative effects of the combination estrogen plus progestin therapy known as one form of hormone replacement therapy. It should be noted that these two studies were restricted to women aged 65 years or older and follow-up was limited to a short period mean of only about 4 years.

"AACE recognizes the importance of the WHI and its findings," said Donald A. Bergman, MD, FACE, AACE president. "However, we feel that it is important to note that the WHI is a study of older postmenopausal women, some of whom might already have the beginning of dementia, which is not yet clinically apparent and which is not related to estrogen use. In fact only one in six of the study participants are within 5 years of menopause at entry into WHI. This is an age at which dementia is less likely to occur and an age where the occurrence of dementia in estrogen users would be more meaningful."

In clinical practice, estrogen (with or without a progestin) is prescribed almost exclusively for women in the early postmenopausal years.

AACE believes that women early in the menopause ...