Posted on 08/02/2019 8:24:24 AM PDT by ConservativeMind
Hormone replacement therapy is a common treatment for menopause-related symptoms.
In a study published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, Pitt researchers showed for the first time that hormone replacement therapy affects the accumulation of heart fat. Importantly, they found that the formulation and delivery route of hormones—whether as a pill taken orally or a patch placed on the skin—mattered when it came to the types of fat deposits women developed and whether those fat deposits translated to hardening of the arteries.
Menopause commonly comes with a host of challenges—including hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal dryness and increased risk of osteoporosis—and hormone therapy is the primary treatment.
An earlier study from El Khoudary's group showed that postmenopausal women with lower serum estrogen levels had a greater volume of paracardial fat—meaning fat that accumulates outside the pericardium—and also higher rates of coronary artery calcification, compared to premenopausal women.
El Khoudary and her team hypothesized that menopause hormone therapy would be protective against heart fat accumulation, but what they found was not so simple. The type of hormone therapy and route of administration mattered.
The transdermal estradiol patch—generally considered to be safer—compounded the harmful effects of paracardial fat deposition on coronary artery calcification (CAC) progression. In contrast, women on the estrogen pill were less likely to see increases in heart fat in the epicardial space immediately surrounding the heart or worsening CAC.
"Many clinical guidelines recommend consideration of transdermal estradiol as a first line treatment for hormone therapy because it is associated with less risk for blood clot events compared to oral conjugated estrogen," said study coauthor Nanette Santoro, M.D., professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Colorado. "This study makes us think twice about that recommendation.”
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
But, did they study bio identical creams via mucousal delivery? (Vaginal area) No? Why not? No pharma money in it, that’s why.
Plus they ONLY studied estradiol? PFFttt
Bioidentical versus horse urine? What about gels and creams and implants (European women like implants.
Lots more options than patches and pills.
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