Risks of heart attack and stroke, reduced by various hormone therapy formulations

A new study proves that bioidentical hormones in transdermal patches may be helpful in lowering heart attack risks. “If confirmed by future randomized trials, these findings may be significant because for the past decade, many women who experienced severe menopause symptoms opted not to use hormone therapy because of the reported increased risk of stroke and heart attacks”, said Chrisandra Shufelt, MD, director of the Women`s Hormone and Menopause Program at the Barbra Streisand Women`s Heart Center in the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute. “Today there are many hormone options in the form of pills, patches and creams, synthetic or bioidentical, low dose or higher dose, and we wanted to answer whether they all have the same risk. This study is important because it is the first of its kind to prove a head-to-head comparison of the different doses and delivery methods. We found low dose and the transdermal patch may carry less risk for some outcomes than traditional hormone therapy, but more research is needed”, Shufelt said. “Our analysis of the data shows that women taking oral estradiol, the bioidentical as opposed to synthetic form of estrogen, may have a trend toward a slightly lower risk of having a stroke. Also, taking estradiol through a patch on the skin was associated with a slightly lower risk of heart disease when we compared it to taking a synthetic hormone in pill form”.