Estrogen Therapy Found to Cut Women’s Mortality Risk

A new study provides strong evidence that taking estrogen hormone pills significantly reduces the rate of death from all causes for postmenopausal women and offers even greater protection against heart attacks and strokes.

The study found that women who took estrogen enjoyed a 46% reduction in the rate of death from all causes and even greater reductions in the death rate from the leading cardiovascular killers, said Dr. Bruce Ettinger, lead author of the research.

A report on the study is being published today in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Ettinger said the research evaluated the medical history of 454 women born from 1900 through 1915 and compared the health outcomes of those who started estrogen hormone replacement therapy and those who did not. About half of the group, 232, took estrogen at least a year, starting in 1969. A group of nonusers totaled 222. Only women who were generally healthy at the start of the study dates were selected.

All of the women in the study were members of the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program in Oakland.

Among those women who did not use estrogen therapy, there were 87 deaths from all causes. Among the estrogen users, there were 53 deaths. Overall mortality rate for users was 46% below that of nonusers, said Ettinger, and most of the benefit was connected to preventing heart attack and stroke, the leading killers of women.

For coronary heart disease, estrogen users had a 60% reduction in mortality risk. For other cardiovascular problems, such as stroke, the estrogen users had a 73% reduction in mortality.

The study also compared the death rate from cancer and from all other causes, and Ettinger said “there was no statistically significant difference.”