Benefits
of Estrogen Therapy: How Can You Benefit?
When you understand the role of estrogen in the body, the benefits
of estrogen therapy become clear.
For a comprehensive look at the benefits
of estrogen therapy, check out this article.
To measure the effect
of estrogen therapy on working memory under stress, Ycaza Herrera recruited 42 women with an average age of 66 from the USC Early versus Late Intervention Trial with Estradiol led by Howard Hodis, a professor at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and a coauthor of the new study.
Half of the postmenopausal women had been on estradiol, a type
of estrogen therapy, for approximately five years, while the others had received a placebo.
«This study provides a foundation for future studies to evaluate the value of psycho - social interventions, such as cognitive therapies, to lessen the effect of major life events, as well as the use
of estrogen therapy during perimenopausal and menopausal stressful times.»
Previous studies of postmenopausal women have suggested the beneficial effect
of estrogen therapy on muscle mass and function.
«Preclinical studies suggest a possible benefit
of estrogen therapy when combined with exercise to increase strength and performance and to prevent the loss of muscle mass, but the role of estrogen in muscle mass is not yet clear for postmenopausal women,» says Dr. JoAnn Pinkerton, executive director of NAMS.
Not exact matches
Estrogen Therapy covers a mirade
of reproductive health issues for women NOT JUST BIRTH CONTROL.
He was writing in the wake
of new revelations about
estrogen replacement
therapy that showed that the benefits
of estrogen had been vastly overstated.
(Progesterone is added to hormone
therapy to protect the uterus lining from a risk
of cancer seen with
estrogen alone.)
Recently, Manson and colleagues published a long - term study
of the risk
of death in women in the two WHI hormone
therapy trials — combined
therapy and
estrogen alone — from the time
of trial enrollment in the mid-1990s until the end
of 2014.
In 2004, researchers published results
of the WHI study
of estrogen - only
therapy, taken for about seven years by women who had had their uteruses surgically removed.
However, along with this seemingly linear storyline in which retinoids block progesterone's promotion
of CK5 + cells, previous work in the lab
of CU Cancer Center investigator Peter Kabos, MD, and others shows that breast cancers treated with anti-
estrogen drugs like tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors show an increased population
of CK5 + cells — it is as if these
therapies remove the roadblock
of estrogen - dependent cells, leaving CK5 + cells to proliferate.
In other words, unfortunately, anti-
estrogen therapies may kill
estrogen - dependent cells but at the expense
of spurring the growth
of CK5 + cells.
By replacing the natural
estrogen lost during menopause, hormone replacement
therapy could be one way for women to regain the cardiovascular benefits
of estrogen, Arnson said.
However, other research has suggested that the
estrogen - like effects
of isoflavones may reduce the effectiveness
of endocrine
therapies used to treat breast cancer.
Estrogens have been reported to exert protective vascular effects in animal and observational but randomized clinical trials did not report such effects in older women, even suggesting the possibility
of an increased CVD risk in this setting, especially with combined
estrogen plus progestin
therapy.
Hormone replacement
therapy (HRT) is a system
of medical treatment for perimenopausal and postmenopausal women, based on the assumption that it may prevent discomfort and health problems caused by diminished circulating
estrogen hormones.
In 2001 the trend reversed: Breast cancer rates initially dipped gradually, but dropped sharply in mid-2002, when many women in the U.S. stopped hormone replacement
therapy after the Women's Health Initiative, a large clinical trial involving
estrogen - progestin
therapy, was stopped after it was determined that the risks — most notably the increased likelihood
of developing breast cancer — outweighed the benefits.
The U.S. study testing the long - term benefits and risks
of hormone replacement
therapy (HRT) was halted after an interim analysis found that the drugs — a combination
of estrogen and progestin — increased the risk
of breast cancer, stroke, and heart disease, and that those risks outweighed reduced risks
of colorectal cancer and bone fractures (ScienceNOW, 9 July).
«Although oral
estrogens are effective for managing menopause symptoms, not enough is known about the cardiovascular safety
of different oral hormone
therapy products relative to each other,» said first author Nicholas L. Smith, PhD.
Researchers at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore., concluded there is definitely a link between breast cancer and the use
of menopausal hormone
therapy, particularly
estrogen - progestin treatment combinations.
Since the report that it did cause breast cancer and many women have stopped taking hormone replacement
therapy, we've seen a decrease in breast - cancer incidence, exactly what you'd predict for our understanding
of how
estrogens work.
Estrogen therapy reduced some
of the risk in women who had undergone the procedure.
The drop in hormone use dates back to July 2002, when the Women's Health Initiative, a 15 - year study tracking the health
of more than 160,000 women, abruptly ended its long - term study
of estrogen - progestin hormone replacement
therapy because women taking the drugs faced an elevated risk
of invasive breast cancer and heart disease.
«This could be very applicable for women suffering from hot flashes or depression for whom
estrogen therapy is really counter-indicated,» says neuropharmacologist Roberta Brinton
of the University
of Southern California in Los Angeles, who was not involved in the new work.
A breast cancer
therapy that blocks
estrogen synthesis to activate cancer - killing genes sometimes loses its effectiveness because the cancer takes over epigenetic mechanisms, including permanent DNA modifications in the patient's tumor, once again allowing tumor growth, according to an international team headed by the University
of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI).
By supplying the correct amounts
of estrogen and progesterone via hormone
therapy, it is relatively easy to make the uterus
of a postmenopausal woman hospitable to a fetus.
Hormonal
therapy for patients with
estrogen - or progesterone - positive breast cancers can reduce the risk
of cancer recurrence by as much as 50 percent.
Perhaps shedding light on this mystery, the researchers found three different types
of mutations in the
estrogen receptor in patients whose cancer was resistant to anti-hormone
therapy.
Currently, there are no molecularly targeted
therapies aimed at triple - negative breast cancer, which is a type
of cancer negative for
estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor and the HER2 protein — all key targets for current
therapies.
Prior to the WHI, the accepted view among physicians was that
estrogen therapy reduced a woman's risk
of developing cognitive impairment.
In June researchers from the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study added a dismal confirmation:
estrogen - only replacement
therapy in postmenopausal women who've had a hysterectomy not only fails to prevent memory loss but may also increase the risk
of dementia.
It is normally very sensitive to
estrogen - targeting
therapies because
of high expression
of the
estrogen receptor protein, but rarely shows high expression
of the HER2 protein.
TNBC is deadly because, unlike other types
of breast cancers such as
estrogen receptor (ER) positive or HER2 amplified breast tumours which have effective targeted
therapy, TNBC tumours do not respond to targeted
therapy.
Gwendolyn Thomas, assistant professor
of exercise science, is the co-author
of a groundbreaking article in the Obesity Journal (The Obesity Society, 2017) about the effects
of exercise and physical activity on postmenopausal breast cancer survivors taking AIs — hormone -
therapy drugs that stop the production
of estrogen.
Because
of their dependence on
estrogen, these tumors are often treated by
estrogen deprivation
therapy.
Potential cardioprotection was based on generally supportive data on lipid levels in intermediate outcome clinical trials, trials in nonhuman primates, and a large body
of observational studies suggesting a 40 % to 50 % reduction in risk among users
of either
estrogen alone or, less frequently, combined
estrogen and progestin.2 - 5 Hip fracture was designated as a secondary outcome, supported by observational data as well as clinical trials showing benefit for bone mineral density.6, 7 Invasive breast cancer was designated as a primary adverse outcome based on observational data.3, 8 Additional clinical outcomes chosen as secondary outcomes that may plausibly be affected by hormone
therapy include other cardiovascular diseases; endometrial, colorectal, and other cancers; and other fractures.3, 6,9
Now, all breast cancers are classified as
estrogen - receptor positive or negative, an important guide to prognosis and
therapy, and medications, such as tamoxifen, that can block the effects
of estrogen have become important tools in the treatment and possible prevention
of breast cancer.
Despite marked advances in breast cancer
therapy, basal - like breast cancer (BBC), an aggressive subtype
of breast cancer usually lacking
estrogen and progesterone receptors, remains difficult to treat.
These results, also presented at the 2015 European Cancer Congress (ECC2015, abstract # 5BA) today, which involve the group
of 1,626 patients with a Recurrence Score between 0 and 10, demonstrated that 99.3 percent
of node - negative,
estrogen receptor (ER)- positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)- negative patients who met accepted guidelines for recommending chemotherapy in addition to hormonal
therapy, had no distant recurrence at five years after treatment with hormonal
therapy alone.
«In the Womens Health Initiative (WHI) trial, when women got seven years
of estrogen alone, there was no increased risk
of breast cancer, but after four to five years on combined hormone
therapy, the risk emerges,» she says.
Low doses
of prescription medications, including antidepressants, can help relieve hot flashes in overweight women who need immediate relief, Dr. Nachtigall says, as can hormone
therapy, which replaces
estrogen and other hormones that decline during menopause.
While long - term use
of traditional hormone replacement
therapies, which include
estrogen and progestin, are no longer recommended due to the heart and health risks, there are other options.
Of course, not all women dealing with menopause want to get an
estrogen therapy prescription.
If your body has stopped producing a normal amount
of testosterone,
estrogen, or progesterone, hormone replacement
therapy may be the only recourse.
It is not synthetic (the negative press
of 20 years ago regarding HRT
therapy had to do with synthetic hormones — primarily
estrogen — and not growth hormone), and should never be confused with synthetic steroids.
Estrogen therapy works to restore a healthy supply of estrogen to t
Estrogen therapy works to restore a healthy supply
of estrogen to t
estrogen to the body.
There are many benefits
of natural
estrogen replacement
therapy.