Hormone replacement therapy may help prevent heart vessel disease.(Brief Article)

2002 AUG 1 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Based on a review of research in postmenopausal women and monkeys, Thomas B. Clarkson, DVM, of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, believes that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has a beneficial role in slowing heart vessel disease after menopause. Clarkson addressed the Third World Congress on Controversies in Obstetrics, Gynecology & Infertility in Washington, DC.

"Mounting evidence points to the conclusion that HRT can help prevent heart vessel disease - if the therapy begins around the time that the body stops making its own estrogen," said Clarkson. "The question may not be if estrogen helps, but when is the optimum time to begin therapy."

Clarkson, a professor of comparative medicine, reviewed studies that evaluated the cardiovascular effects of HRT. Included were four large trials of postmenopausal monkeys conducted at Wake Forest over the past 12 years. When estrogen replacement was administered at the onset of estrogen deficiency - which compares to the postmenopausal transition in women - there was a 70% inhibition of fatty buildup in the heart's arteries. In contrast, when estrogen replacement was delayed for a period comparable to 6 years in women, there was no benefit on the heart's arteries.

In his lecture, Clarkson emphasized the importance of not basing prescribing practices on one or two studies of older women, but rather, evaluating all available data. After reviewing recent clinical trials, Clarkson concluded that mounting evidence supports the probability that estrogen therapies can serve as a primary prevention against cardiovascular disease.

For example, the Estrogen in ...