for eMaxHealthSecondary analyses of findings from the Women's Health Initiative suggest that women who begin hormone therapy within 10 years of menopause may have less risk of coronary heart disease due to hormone therapy than women farther from menopause.
Overall, hormone therapy did not reduce the risk of CHD. However, the farther a woman was from the onset of menopause when she began hormone therapy, the greater her risk of CHD due to hormone therapy appeared to be. Although these findings did not meet statistical significance, they suggest that the health consequences of hormone therapy may vary by time from menopause.
These findings are consistent with the primary publications from the WHI trials of estrogen plus progestin and estrogen-alone (total of 27,347 participants) in showing no overall benefit for CHD, and in suggesting that risk due to hormones may differ depending on age or years since menopause.
"Postmenopausal Hormone Therapy and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease by Age and Years Since Menopause," will be published in the April 4 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
In a secondary analysis, scientists reanalyze previously collected data and findings in an effort to clarify or ask new questions. In the case of this latest WHI analysis, the authors combined the data from the two trials to explore in more detail the previously observed trends in hormone effects by distance from the menopause. Differences in hormone therapy effects were examined in three age categories (50 to 59, 60 to 69, and 70 to 79) or in years since the onset of menopause (less than 10, 10 to 19, and 20 or more). The Women's Health Initiative and the newly published analyses are funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health.
The analyses also suggest that the increased risk in heart disease due to hormone therapy in older women is primarily in those who also have hot flashes and night sweats. Study participants who had these symptoms were more likely to have risk factors for CHD such as high blood pressure or high blood cholesterol, but it was not clear whether this explained their higher risk on hormone therapy.
Other results from the analyses of the combined trials include:
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