The Truth about Estrogen and Heart Disease
Having just read the article herebelow I have just copied this Yale School of Medecine article for my wife and will ask her to read this asap and suggest you do the same:
In 2002, The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute stopped a major clinical study testing the health benefits of combined estrogen and progestin therapy in menopausal women three years early after discovering an increased risk of breast cancer.
More than a decade later, women are still suffering from the fallout of that study, known as the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI). But not in the way many people might imagine.
“Women are dying because they are not using estrogen,” said Dr. Phillip M. Sarrel, Emeritus Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine, describing the confusion following the WHI report as “a muddle.”
“The age of muddle is where we are now,” he said. “And we’re hoping to get out of that.”
Dr. Sarrel joined a panel of experts for a continuing medical education seminar last month at Yale School of Medicine, urging practitioners and the public to re-think the role of estrogens in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease in women.
“Re-thinking means re-searching,” said Dr. Lawrence S. Cohen, a cardiologist and the Ebenezer K. Hunt Professor of Medicine Emeritus at Yale School of Medicine. “We must look again at old concepts as science moves ahead and we learn more about the topics.”
More than 290,000 women die of cardiovascular disease in the United States each year, making it the number one killer of women and responsible for one of every four female deaths. From 2002-2012, a study led by Sarrel found that the declining use of estrogen-only therapy after a hysterectomy contributed to the premature deaths of a minimum of 18,601 and as many as 91,610 postmenopausal women.
The WHI involved two separate studies. One enrolled women who still have a uterus taking a combination of equine estrogens and a progestogen. Women who had their uterus removed in a hysterectomy took only estrogen.
The women with an intact uterus had increased risks of cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, blood clots and stroke. News headlines following the study’s cancellation in 2002 stressed this threat to women’s health. And people took notice…
