Hormone Replacement

Women 65 and older with relatively high levels of estrogen in their blood are less likely to suffer memory loss and other characteristics of cognitive decline, according to new research to be reported today. Writing in the British medical journal The Lancet, Dr. Kristine Yaffe and a team of researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, say they think specific types of estrogen play a role in keeping cognitive function intact. Moreover, Yaffe said, having high levels of estrogen, particularly the form of estrogen known as estradiol, does not necessarily mean having the estrogen levels of a 25-year-old.

Every woman will experience menopause, some in the normal course of aging and some before. It can bring on a host of symptoms in addition to hot flashes. But there are things that women can do, from improving their diet and exercising to finding the right treatment, explains Dr. Rakhi Gupta, a gynecologist at the Center for Women's Health at Good Samaritan Hospital. She answers some common questions about this life change. What is menopause? Menopause is a normal life change that occurs as women age, usually between their late 40s and 50s. Menopause is defined as the discontinuation of menstruation for one year or more.

As women try to decide whether to try hormone replacement therapy, they should weigh the risks and benefits according to their own health, their family history and their symptoms of menopause.In "The Silent Passage: Menopause," journalist Gail Sheehy provides a list of hormone therapy pros and cons which women should consider and discuss with their physicians.Risks* Possible increased risk of cancer of the uterus.* Unknown associations with breast cancer.* Continued menstruation possible.

One in four cases of breast cancer in post-menopausal women who have not used hormone replacement therapy is caused by weight gain, but the risk can be substantially lowered by losing weight, researchers reported today. Researchers found that if the women lost at least 22 pounds, they could reduce their risk of breast cancer by about 40 percent. If they kept the weight off for at least four years, the risk was reduced by 60 percent. "Weight is one of the few risk factors for breast cancer women can do something about," said lead author A. Heather Eliassen, an epidemiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.

As women try to decide whether to try hormone replacement therapy, they should weigh the risks and benefits according to their own health, their family history and their symptoms of menopause.In "The Silent Passage: Menopause," journalist Gail Sheehy provides a list of hormone therapy pros and cons which women should consider and discuss with their physicians.Risks* Possible increased risk of cancer of the uterus.* Unknown associations with breast cancer.* Continued menstruation possible.

Millions of women are facing a difficult decision. Should they take hormone replacement pills after menopause?On the one hand, they are told that estrogen will reduce their risk of osteoporosis and heart disease. On the other, reports have surfaced linking hormone therapy to breast cancer.Complicating the matter is that there is no consensus. Some studies show a substantially increased incidence of breast cancer (30 to 60 percent) while others demonstrate no elevated risk.Although estrogen has been prescribed for more than 50 years, some experts estimate that it will be at least another decade before we have a definitive answer to this controversy.

My menstrual periods have stopped over the past few months. My doctor has urged me to start hormone replacement, but I am reluctant to follow her advice. Is my doctor right?Absolutely! Every year the evidence grows stronger for the benefits of hormone replacement in postmenopausal women.It has been clear for a number of years that estrogen replacement is the most effective way to prevent osteoporosis, the loss of bone mineral that predisposes to fractures of the hip, spine and wrists.More than 30 epidemiological studies have shown that replacement with estrogen alone greatly reduces the risk of heart attacks and other complications of coronary artery disease (CAD)

A new report by a panel of international experts casts doubt on longstanding claims that hormone replacement in postmenopausal women can prevent or treat a variety of ills, including heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, major depression, urinary incontinence and broken bones due to osteoporosis. While hormone therapy is the most effective way to relieve such menopausal symptoms as hot flashes and night sweats, scientific evidence is insufficient to support its use for the other problems, says the report, to be published in June.

When a large study of hormone replacement therapy was abruptly halted last summer because of risks from the drugs, scientists immediately began to reassess all other studies involving the drugs. Another study has been halted, and participants in others have had to give their consent again. Researchers say the ripples from the hormone replacement study will spread for years, making them think carefully about when, if ever, to subject healthy women to estrogen therapy in scientific studies.

Several new cookbooks featuring phyto-estrogens as the main course and a study announced this week showing that plant-based estrogen does improve bone density of post-menopausal women, makes one wonder:Can a person eat her way to hormone balance?Consider this:Researchers at the University of California San Francisco have found that Estratab, an estrogen derived from soy and yams now prescribed for hot flashes, also improved bone density in women. It works in half the dose and without the ill effects cited by patients taking the most commonly prescribed animal-based estrogen.

I just read the question posed about removing petroleum jelly from hair and I have a solution. As a child, my mom and her best friend convinced me to let them put huge quantities of Vaseline in my hair. After all, I was being a monster for Halloween, and I'd be scarier with crazy hair! I spent the next two days in tears while they shampooed my hair with everything from dish soap to Boraxo. Finally, someone suggested Goop, the garage mechanic's hand soap. It finally broke through the inch-thick layer of grease!

Nearly two-thirds of women who use hormone supplements to control menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweats and depression suffer a recurrence or a worsening of symptoms once they stop the therapy, according to a study published yesterday. But many of the 63 percent who had a recurrence were able to ease symptoms with "lifestyle changes, such as drinking more fluids, starting or increasing exercise [and] practicing yoga," said Dr. Jennifer Hays of Houston's Baylor College of Medicine, one of the study's authors.

For older women, estrogen was a wonder drug. The hormone not only relieved menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes and mood swings, but also prevented bone loss, heart disease and memory problems. Better yet, it endowed many of those who took it with youth and vigor. At least, that's what everybody thought. Over the past two years, estrogen's reputation has plummeted. Two large-scale clinical studies by the National Institutes of Health were called off early when researchers decided that hormone replacement therapy increased the risk of stroke and heart disease -- the very ailments it was thought to prevent.

My pharmacist said that there are effective oral medicines for the flu, but they require a prescription. I didn't get a flu shot this year before they ran out. What can you tell me about flu drugs? Your pharmacist was probably referring to prescription antiviral medications. Symmetrel (amantadine) was first approved to treat Parkinson's disease in 1966. It was also found to prevent type A influenza or speed recovery. The Food and Drug Administration approved it for this purpose in 1976, though relatively few doctors prescribed it. A chemical cousin, Flumadine (rimantadine)

Novavax Inc., a Columbia company that makes women's health products and drugs to fight infectious diseases, said yesterday that a Tennessee investment firm had invested $16.6 million through a private stock purchase. Bristol Tenn.-based SJ Strategic Investments LLC bought 4.75 million shares of Novavax at $3.50 a share. That investment, along with previous stock purchases in the open market, brings the firm's total ownership in Novavax to 19.4 percent. Under the terms of the deal, SJ Strategic Investments can increase its ownership position to 25 percent.

CHICAGO -- Now that science has concluded that the long-term risks of hormone replacement outweigh the benefits for postmenopausal women, men may get their day. A task force led by the Institute of Medicine and supported by the National Institute on Aging will evaluate the feasibility of conducting clinical trials of testosterone replacement in older men. The idea of convening a panel of experts arose in part because of growing concern that men are...

It's a litany of symptoms sure to push every button a middle-aged man has: fatigue, loss of strength, decrease in bone density, increase in fat and -- most frightening for some -- diminished sexual drive and function. Who wouldn't be depressed -- which is also a symptom of hypogonadism, or abnormally low levels of the male hormone testosterone.For decades, women have been grappling with the question of whether to undergo hormone replacement therapy, a topic that received broad attention as baby boomers began reaching menopause.

Carol Sandler has a lot to think about these days -- along with about 14 million other American women. A decade ago the 59-year-old Baltimorean started taking hormones for mild symptoms of menopause, but now she's wondering if they might do more harm than good. Because of the furor over new research, she and a lot of other women are looking at alternate treatments for everything from hot flashes to brittle bones. A massive study has suggested that women on one of the most prescribed forms of hormone replacement therapy, or HRT, have a higher risk of breast cancer, heart disease and stroke.

Women who recently learned that hormone therapy can raise their risk of heart disease and other ailments might someday have to consider a potential benefit: that hormones protect against Alzheimer's disease. Scientists studying elderly women in a Utah county found that those who took the hormones had lower risk of developing the brain disease, which wipes out memory and the ability to carry out simple tasks. The findings "provide new evidence to suggest a protective effect" of hormone replacement therapy, according to researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health whose study appears in today's Journal of the American Medical Association.

When a large study of hormone replacement therapy was abruptly halted last summer because of risks from the drugs, scientists immediately began to reassess all other studies involving the drugs. Another study has been halted, and participants in others have had to give their consent again. Researchers say the ripples from the hormone replacement study will spread for years, making them think carefully about when, if ever, to subject healthy women to estrogen therapy in scientific studies.