Menopausal Hormone Therapy and the Pancreas

Hormone therapy (HT) for postmenopausal symptoms has been associated with acute pancreatitis in a number of case reports, but epidemiologic data are lacking. Investigators conducted a prospective study of postmenopausal women (age range, 48–83 years) from the population-based Swedish Mammography Cohort who completed baseline questionnaires about HT use in 1997 and were followed until 2010. At baseline, 42% of 31,000 participants were current users and 12% were past users of HT.

Using the Swedish National Patient Register, investigators identified 237 cases of incident acute pancreatitis during a total follow-up of 400,000 person-years. Incidence rates, standardized to the cohort's age distribution, were 71 cases per 100,000 person-years amon…