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After menopause, women's skin becomes thinner, and wounds heal more slowly. An international team reports that the loss of estrogen is responsible, and that estrogen replacement therapy dramatically speeds wound healing.
The subjects were 10 postmenopausal women on hormone replacement therapy (HRT), 10 postmenopausal women not on HRT, and 10 young (premenopausal) women who underwent skin biopsies. The rate of wound healing was comparable in the women receiving HRT and in the young women, and significantly faster in these groups than in the postmenopausal women not on HRT. Wound levels of the cytokine TGF-beta, known to affect healing, were higher in the HRT group and in the young women than in the postmenopausal women not on HRT.
The investig…