The results of the Women’s Health Initiative no doubt created skeptics of hormone replacement therapy. The large federal study was stopped in 2002 after estrogen-progestin pills were linked to increased risks for heart disease and breast cancer.
Since then, however, a number of newer studies have clarified many of the risks – and benefits – of HRT. A new Danish study published in the BMJ shows that hormone replacement therapy not only eases the discomfort of hot flashes, but also does not appear to place women at higher risk for heart problems, Time reports.
In the new study, researchers divided 1,006 recently menopausal women aged 45 to 58 into one of two groups: an HRT group and a non-HRT group (the women not taking HRT also did not receive a placebo). The women participated for 10 years, after which researchers continued tracking them for six. What they found is that women in the HRT group were less likely to die from heart-related incidents.
The authors concluded that “after 10 years of randomized treatment, women receiving hormone replacement therapy early after menopause had a significantly reduced risk of mortality, heart failure, or myocardial infarction, without any apparent increase in risk of cancer, venous thromboembolism or stroke.”