Study: Estrogen Therapy Could Have Saved 50,000

Researchers at Yale University have some disturbing news for people whose loved one died of cancer or heart disease after having a hysterectomy and choosing not to use estrogen therapy: the therapy may have saved their lives.  A Yale news release explains that prior to the release of a 2002 study that showed an increased risk of heart disease and breast cancer, it was standard practice for doctors to recommend estrogen therapy for women without a uterus, and more than 90 percent of these women used it to treat symptoms such as hot flashes, and to prevent osteoporosis and other diseases related to menopausal hormone deficiency. Today, about 10 percent of these women use estrogen. Yale researchers point out that the study that changed medical practice was a large-scale Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) look at women with a uterus who took pills that combined estrogen and a progestin, and the results of that study do not apply to women with no uterus who use estrogen-only therapy. More recent research, they say, shows that women who took estrogen only therapy had much better outcomes. For example, in 2011 and 2012 the WHI reported that women who received estrogen compared to those who received placebo had fewer deaths each year for 10 years and were less likely to develop breast cancer and heart disease. For each of the 10 years the death rate among those not taking estrogen was 13 more per 10,000, and most of the women died from heart disease while breast cancer accounted for almost all the other deaths. Read more from Yale.