Timing, method of HRT may affect heart attack risk
October 17th, 2008 by Jennifer Walker-Journey
How and when women take hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may affect their risk of heart attack, according to the Washington Post.
For six years, Danish researchers tracked nearly 700,000 healthy Danish women aged 51 to 69. While researchers found no increased risk of a heart attack in women who were currently using HRT compared with women who had never used HRT, there was a 24 percent increased risk among women aged 51 to 54, and an increased risk in women of the same age group taking the prescribed medications for a long period of time.
The study found that older women taking HRT over the long term did not have an increased risk of heart attack; however there was an increased risk among these women with estrogen alone.
The Danish study is the largest of its kind since the 2002 U.S. government-sponsored Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), that was halted when researchers found that HRT led to an increased risk of dangerous conditions such as breast cancer, heart attack, stroke and blood clots. A woman’s risk depended on whether she was taking estrogen alone or estrogen plus progesterone. The findings disputed the prior belief that HRT could reduce a woman’s risk of heart disease.
The Danish study points out numerous factors that impact the pros and cons of HRT, including the amount of hormone taken and the timing of use.