Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) Hormone Replacement Trial (HRT) was stopped prematurely
in 2002, because of increased risk for stroke, heart disease and thromboembolic events
in women taking estrogen plus progestin combination [
[1]
]. Along with Heart and Estrogen/Progestin Replacement study (HERS) and The Estrogen
and Atherosclerosis (ERA) trials [
2
,
3
], WHI study was the third trial to suggest that HRT was not cardioprotective in postmenopausal
women, but may actually increase the risk for thromboembolism and coronary heart disease
(CHD). This stands in contrast to clinical and experimental studies which suggest
cardioprotection and improvements in vascular reactivity following treatment with
estrogens [
[4]
].To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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References
Writing Group for the Women’s Health Initiative Investigators. Risks and benefits of estrogen plus progestin in healthy postmenopausal women. Principal results from the Women’s Health Initiative randomized controlled trial. JAMA 2002;288:321–33.
- Heart and Estrogen/progestin Replacement Study (HERS). Randomized trial of estrogen plus progestin for secondary prevention of coronary heart disease in postmenopausal women.JAMA. 1998; 280: 605-612
- Effects of estrogen replacement on the progression of coronary artery atherosclerosis.N. Eng. J. Med. 2000; 343: 522-529
- Mechanisms of cardioprotection by estrogens.Proc. Soc. Expt. Biol. Med. 1998; 217: 23-29
F-D-C Reports. Wyeth–Ayerst commits to characterization of Premarin. FDA says. Generic conjugates may not be approved until Premarin is characterized. F-D-C Reports, Chevy Chase, MD, 1997, May 12, p. 3–5.
The Coronary drug Project. Findings leading to discontinuation of the 2.5 mg/day estrogen group. JAMA 1973;226:652–7.
- Estrogen in the prevention of atherosclerosis: a randomized double-blind, placebo controlled trial.Ann. Intern. Med. 2001; 135: 939-953
Article Info
Publication History
Received:
October 29,
2003
Identification
Copyright
© 2004 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
