RSS Feeds
Should Prescription of Postmenopausal Hormone Therapy Be Based on the Results of Bone Densitometry?
- Steven R. Cummings, MD;
- Warren S. Browner, MD, MPH;
- Deborah Grady, MD, MPH; and
- Bruce Ettinger, MD
- University of California Medical Center
San Francisco, CA 94143 - Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center
San Francisco, CA 94121 - Kaiser Foundation Hospitals Division of Research
Oakland, CA 94611
Excerpt
A woman's decision about whether to take hormones after menopause can substantially change her risk for several diseases. A number of prospective studies (1) have found that women who use estrogen have about half the risk for coronary heart disease; because coronary heart disease is by far the leading cause of death among women, this is the most important potential benefit of estrogen therapy. Cancer, on the other hand, is less common than coronary heart disease but more frightening to many women. If used long-term without a progestin, estrogen substantially increases the risk for endometrial cancer (2). If used for
This 100-word excerpt has been provided in the absence of an abstract.
Article and Author Information
-
Grant Support: In part by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Faculty Fellowship in General Internal Medicine and by U.S. Public Health Service grant RO1-AG05407.
-
Requests for Reprints: Steven R. Cummings, MD, University of California, San Francisco, Box 0886, San Francisco, CA 94143.
