Word: estrogens
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
While its general findings are valid, Rocca's study had limitations. For instance, the participants' dementia was measured not in person, but through a cognitive test over the phone or through a proxy. Also, the women had had their surgeries between 1950 and 1987 - oophorectomy procedures and estrogen therapy may have been different then than...
...link between protective mental health benefits and estrogen therapy appears to conflict with the findings of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), which found that women who took estrogen alone or estrogen plus progestin from age 65 increased their risk of mild impairment or dementia - along with other cardiovascular problems. But the authors of the Neurology studies stress that the age-dependent window is key when considering therapy and mental health. "Below 50, estrogen is protective. After 65 it is harmful. But nobody really knows between 50 and 65," says Rocca. "In the middle it's still unclear...
...director of the Women's Health Clinic at the Mayo Clinic, agrees that timing is crucial. The women in the WHI study were years out from menopause and probably already had significant hardening and narrowing of the arteries, says Shuster. It comes as no surprise, then, that taking an estrogen pill, which increases blood clots, would increase heart and brain events. "The problem is that the results of the WHI were extrapolated to say that older women shouldn't take estrogen. But the bigger issue probably depends on when a woman starts it, if it is going to be protective...
...April, another WHI study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that estrogen-alone therapy benefited women between ages 50 and 59 who had had hysterectomies; these women had up to 40% less calcified plaque build-up in their arteries compared with women on a placebo. In the coming years, other trials, such as the Early Versus Late Intervention Trial With Estradiol (ELITE) and the Kronos Early Estrogen Prevention Study (KEEPS), will provide more data on estrogen's effect on women's health, particularly cardiovascular health, says Rocca...
...however, his new studies may well change standards of care. Women who are considering a hysterectomy or ovary removal now also need to be aware of the increased risk of dementia, says Shuster, who encourages patients who have had a hysterectomy and oophorectomy at a young age to take estrogen until the natural age of menopause, if not beyond. "The big news is that we shouldn't be withdrawing estrogen from women who need it," says Shuster. "Medically, legally, there is an exaggerated fear of prescribing estrogen, and women have a fear of taking estrogen because...