Hormones For Menopause May Aid Heart

Study Finds Less Artery Hardening In Women Who Start Pills At Beginning Of Menopause

(CBS/AP) 
Warren likened it to exercise: When started earlier in life and done regularly, it can protect a heart. "But if I take a woman who's 63 years old, who's never exercised, and start her on it, I can kill her," she said.

In the new research, Manson and her colleagues focused on more than 1,000 women in their 50s who had hysterectomies. Roughly a quarter of U.S. women in that age bracket have had a hysterectomy, Manson said.

The women were either on estrogen or dummy pills for an average of about 7½ years. They then had cardiac scans in 2005 to check for buildup of calcium in the arteries. The women were 64 years old, on average, at the time of the scans. There was no baseline scan of the women when the study started.

One expert who consults for Wyeth, Dr. Howard Hodis of the University of Southern California, celebrated the results as evidence that estrogen — started at the right time — could be taken for decades.

Other experts said that is going too far.

"Wishful thinking," said Dr. Jacques Rossouw, a federal researcher who oversees the Women's Health Initiative.

Risks for stroke and blood clots remain with continued hormone use, noted Dr. Nanette Wenger, an Emory University expert on heart disease in women. Still, the latest findings should provide some comfort to menopausal women who are considering taking estrogen, she said. "This is quite an important study."

The risk of serious heart problems for women in their 50s is low. An earlier study by Manson and others estimated that for women in that age group, 27 in 10,000 women would suffer a heart attack in a year, and 17 in 10,000 would have a stroke.

For women on estrogen, the estimates were 17 and 15, respectively, per 10,000.

Hardening of the arteries is considered a strong predictor of heart attacks, but heart attack reduction is the real goal. So far, for younger women, there is no conclusive medical evidence about the impact on heart attacks.

Women who want to prevent heart disease should focus instead on healthy eating, exercise and not smoking, Wenger said.

Manson agreed. "Estrogen is known to have other risks and should be used only for the treatment of menopausal symptoms at the lowest dose for the shortest duration necessary," she said.