Estrogen's CV Benefits Hold after Adding Progestin

Estrogen therapy protects postmenopausal women from heart disease, and women are often encouraged to take estrogen for that reason. However, it is not clear whether adding progestin decreases estrogen's cardiovascular benefit.

Investigators used prospective data from almost 60,000 women from the Nurses Health Study. During 16 years of follow-up (1976 to 1992), 770 myocardial infarctions or coronary deaths and 572 strokes were documented. After adjustment for multiple cardiovascular risk factors, the relative risk for major heart disease among women who took estrogen and progestin, as compared to women who used no hormones, was 0.39 (95% CI, 0.19-0.78). Users of estrogen alone had a relative risk of 0.60 (CI, 0.43-0.83). For former users, the…