DO ESTROGENS PROTECT AGAINST CORONARY HEART DISEASE?
(November 2001) Estrogen hormone treatment after the menopause relieves hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms and helps prevent osteoporosis (bone thinning). For a long time, it was thought estrogen administration also markedly reduced the risk of coronary heart disease. This was based primarily on analyses of estrogen use by women who had already developed coronary heart disease and controls who did not develop the disease. The conclusion about the effectiveness of estrogens has also been based on analyses of groups of women, some of whom took estrogens, comparing the frequency of coronary heart disease during follow up among those who did and those who did not take estrogens. But, no study had been carried out in which a group of women were chosen randomly to receive either estrogen or a placebo in blinded fashion (so the women did not know whether they received estrogen or an inactive placebo) and then the entire group would be followed for the development of coronary heart dise
