Word: progestin
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...divided into five major studies that look at everything from the role of diet in determining a woman's health as she ages to the role of hormones in that process. More than 16,000 healthy women, ages 50 to 79, volunteered for the study on estrogen and progestin...
...much for the major conclusions. Now for the caveats and complications. The WHI study looked at the most popular brand of estrogen and progestin, which is called Prempro and is made by Wyeth. Technically speaking, the WHI findings do not apply to other products. Some doctors have speculated that lower-dose hormones or estrogen-progestin patches and creams might somehow avoid some of the risks associated with Prempro. That has yet to be proved. Even so-called natural hormones (those derived from plants) aren't necessarily risk free. For one thing, they haven't been as carefully tested as Prempro...
...spring of this year, however, a new danger emerged from the data. Not only were women who took estrogen and progestin more likely to suffer heart attacks and blood clots in the lungs and legs, but they also had a slightly increased risk of developing breast cancer. That was just enough to tip the scale. Though the women on HRT suffered fewer hip fractures (1 woman per 1,000 per year vs. 1 1/2 women per 1,000 per year), the benefit wasn't great enough to warrant the risk. Because the trial was designed to look at women...
Intriguingly, the part of the WHI study that focuses on the long-term benefits of estrogen alone among women who have undergone hysterectomies is ongoing. So far, the safety board has not detected any excess risk of breast cancer in this group. Apparently, estrogen plus progestin has a negative cumulative effect on the breast that estrogen by itself seems not to have...
Though last week's news raises big questions for anyone on hormone-replacement therapy, women taking birth-control pills shouldn't panic. True, these pills also contain estrogen and progestin, but most women take them before menopause, when their bodies are making more of their own hormones. So it's quite possible that their bodies are better able to handle the excess. In any case, it's impossible to extrapolate from the WHI study...