Explore the latest research on hormone therapy and its impact on heart health during menopause, including insights from JAMA and the New England Journal of Medicine.
New studies question the unconditional use of hormone therapy: Hormonal treatment at the onset of menopause helps to prevent heart disease and vascular diseases.
Concerns have increased in recent years about the side effects of hormone therapy for women in menopause and during menopause treatment, leading to a reevaluation of treatment benefits. New studies question categorically whether hormone therapy, which is given during a critical window after menopause, helps prevent heart disease and vascular diseases, in addition to alleviating treatment for women suffering from menopause symptoms.
The studies published in recent months in two of the most important medical journals: JAMA, and- New England Journal of Medicine, and specifically with regard to the link and the effort that began with the publication of a WHI study in 2002.
One of the most specialized doctors in the treatment of menopause symptoms commented on the results of these studies, saying: These results support the recommendation to start hormone therapy in the early stages of menopause, regardless of age. Women should start treatment immediately after menopause to avoid menopause symptoms and to reduce the risk of heart disease, vascular disease, and osteoporosis. Because starting with hormone therapy at a later stage is more dangerous, because the organs are struggling with the effect of a long period of hormone deficiency, and therefore they are weak and susceptible to diseases. With that, starting treatment also at a later stage is more appropriate with medical monitoring to ensure that the treatment does not cause harm.
Researchers Rebuttal: Treatment helps!
Indeed, for many years, hormone therapy has been considered a powerful barrier to heart disease and vascular diseases, until in 2002 a large American study (WHI) was published, claiming, among other things, that the use of hormones for a long period is harmful to the heart. After the study, a sharp division opened between supporters and opponents of hormone therapy in menopause. This effort ends now with the publication of a new analysis of the data from the JAMA journal – before the researchers who conducted the original study in 2002, and in which they preserve the findings they published and which caused fear of hormone therapy.
The new in the current analysis is the separation that is performed to assess the effect of hormone therapy on women of different ages. The new analysis was carried out due to the basic flaw that was in the original WHI study on a broad sample of women participating in it, 63, i.e. 18 years after the onset of menopause. In this article, the researchers emphasize the importance of separating between women who receive hormone therapy at an early stage and those who receive it at a later stage. The researchers now acknowledge that for women who participated in the WHI study and received hormone therapy at an early stage, they actually noticed a decrease in the incidence of heart disease and vascular diseases, as well as a decrease in mortality rates, and therefore the effects of hormones in an early stage protect the heart in practice.
Another study supports this result
Support for this result was found in another study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, where it indicated that hormone therapy given to women at the onset of menopause greatly reduces the chance of developing vascular diseases of the heart, as well as reducing the risk of heart disease.
During this study, 1064 women aged 50 to 59 years for more than 7 years were examined. Some of them were treated with estrogen hormone only, and some with placebo. Through CT scans of the coronary arteries, the amount of calcium deposited on the vascular system in the heart was examined, and from a comparison of the results it became clear that hormone therapy greatly reduces the deposition of calcium on the walls of blood vessels that nourish the heart. And thus greatly reduces the risk of developing atherosclerosis.
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