No Long-Term Secondary-Prevention Benefit with Combination HRT

Last year, the American Heart Association advised against the use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for secondary prevention of adverse cardiovascular events in postmenopausal women . . .

Last year, the American Heart Association advised against the use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for secondary prevention of adverse cardiovascular events in postmenopausal women (JW Cardiology Aug 17 2001). The recommendation was made on the basis of mounting evidence suggesting potentially negative cardiovascular effects of HRT in the short term and only possible benefits in the long term. Now, long-term data are available for 2321 of the 2763 postmenopausal women with coronary heart disease (CHD) who had been randomized to placebo or to 0.625 mg/day of conjugated estrogen and 2.5 mg/day of medroxyprogesterone in the Heart and Estrogen/progestin Replacement Study (HERS).

By the end of a 6.8-year follow-up, HRT recipients did not show…

Reviewing Author

JoAnne M. Foody, MD