Evidence Summary
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Key messages from scientific research that's ready to be acted on
Got It, Hide thisIn postmenopausal women, hormone therapy does not reduce risk of death; it does increase cardiovascular events
Boardman HM, Hartley L, Eisinga A, et al. Hormone therapy for preventing cardiovascular disease in post-menopausal women. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2015;3:CD002229.
Review question
In postmenopausal women with or without cardiovascular disease, does hormone therapy reduce the risk of cardiovascular events, such as clots in the veins or lungs, heart attacks, and strokes?
Background
Women are more likely to develop cardiovascular disease after menopause than before menopause. Hormone therapy is often used to control menopausal symptoms. It is thought that hormone therapy might also prevent cardiovascular disease in postmenopausal women.
How the review was done
The researchers did a systematic review based on studies available up to February 2014.
They found 19 randomized controlled trials with 40,410 postmenopausal women (average age 64 years).
Key features of the trials were:
- women were relatively healthy (9 trials) or had cardiovascular disease (10 trials);
- hormone therapy included estrogen alone or combined with progestogen;
- hormone therapy was compared with placebo or no treatment; and
- health outcomes were measured 7 months to 10 years after treatment or placebo started.
What the researchers found
The quality of evidence was moderate to high.
Postmenopausal women with no previous cardiovascular disease
Compared with placebo, hormone therapy:
- did not reduce the risk of death overall or death due to cardiovascular causes; and
- increased risk of stroke, clots in the legs or arms (venous thromboembolism), and clots in the lungs (pulmonary embolism).
Postmenopausal women with previous cardiovascular disease
Compared with placebo, hormone therapy:
- did not reduce the risk of death overall, death due to cardiovascular causes, or stroke; and
- increased risk of clots in the arms or legs and clots in the lungs.
Conclusion
In postmenopausal women with or without cardiovascular disease, hormone therapy does not reduce risk of death and increases risk of cardiovascular events.
Hormone therapy vs placebo in postmenopausal women
| Outcomes | Number of trials (number of women) | Rate of events with hormone therapy | Rate of events with placebo | Absolute effect of hormone therapy | |
| Women with no previous cardiovascular disease | |||||
| Death | 8 trials (34,422 women) | 3.2% | 3.2% | No effect | |
| Death due to cardiovascular causes | 3 trials (28,353 women) | 0.7% | 0.8% | No effect* | |
| Stroke | 4 trials (28,719 women) | 2.3% | 1.8% | About 5 more woman out of 1000 had a stroke | |
| Clots in veins (venous thromboembolism) | 6 trials (33,477 women) | 2% | 1% | About 10 more woman out of 1000 had a venous thromboembolism | |
| Clots in lungs (pulmonary embolism) | 3 trials (31,732 women) | 0.9% | 0.5% | About 4 more women out of 1000 had a pulmonary embolism | |
| Women with previous cardiovascular disease | |||||
| Death | 7 trials (5445 women) | 8.8% | 8.4% | No effect* | |
| Death due to cardiovascular causes | 6 trials (5259 women) | 4.5% | 4.5% | No effect | |
| Stroke | 5 trials (5172 women) | 7.1% | 6.5% | No effect* | |
| Clots in the veins (venous thromboembolism) | 6 trials (4399 women) | 2.3% | 1.1% | About 12 more women out of 1000 had a clot in the veins | |
| Clots in the lungs (pulmonary embolism) | 3 trials (3920 women) | 1% | 0.4% | About 6 more women out of 1000 had a clot in the lungs | |
Related Topics
Glossary
A harmless, inactive, and simulated treatment.
Studies where people are assigned to one of the treatments purely by chance.
A comprehensive evaluation of the available research evidence on a particular topic.
The body's network of blood vessels. It includes the arteries, veins, and capillaries that carry blood to and from the heart.
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