Major Analysis of Hormone Replacement Therapy Confirms HRT Decreases Mortality in Younger Postmenopausal Women

In an article published in the November 2009 issue of the American Journal of Medicine researchers have concluded that HRT almost certainly decreases mortality in younger postmenopausal women.

Writing in the article, Shelley R. Salpeter, MD, states, “It is clear that these findings need to be interpreted in the light of potential benefits and harms of hormone therapy. The available evidence indicates that hormone therapy in younger postmenopausal women increases the risk of breast cancer and pulmonary embolism and reduces the risk of cardiovascular events, colon cancer, and hip fracture. The cardiovascular benefit is a result of a small absolute increase in stroke and a greater reduction in coronary heart disease events. The total mortality benefit for younger women seen in the randomized trials and observational studies indicates that the reduction in deaths from coronary heart disease, fracture, and colon cancer outweighed the increase in deaths from breast cancer, stroke and pulmonary embolism. In addition to this mortality benefit, hormone therapy in younger women provides an improvement in quality-of-life measures, at least in the first few years of treatment.” via Science Daily

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