Estrogen ineffective after menopause, study says

CHICAGO – Estrogen pills have little effect on older women’s quality of life, fresh evidence from a landmark study shows in yet another blow to the myth that most women need the hormones to feel better after menopause.

More than 10,000 women with an average age of 63 were asked about their general health, mental, physical and social functioning, energy level and emotional health before and a year after they started taking either estrogen or placebo pills.

Some scores dipped and others increased slightly, but there was little overall difference between the groups, which each included more than 5,000 women. Women taking estrogen reported slightly fewer sleep problems but slightly worse social functioning than those on the placebos, but the differences were minimal. Overall quality-of-life scores were high for both groups.

Participants were part of the government’s Women’s Health Initiative, which conducted a long-running study on the risks and benefits of hormones.

Use plummeted after results in 2002 linked estrogen-progestin pills sold as Prempro with an increased risk for heart attacks, breast cancer and strokes in postmenopausal women.

Later results showed estrogen-only pills, sold as Premarin, slightly increased older women’s risk of a stroke and possibly dementia.

The new results for estrogen-only pills echo previous data from the same study showing estrogen-progestin had little effect on older women’s overall well-being and quality of life. The 10,739 women in the latest study, which appeared in Monday’s Archives of Internal Medicine, had all had hysterectomies.

In both groups, fewer than 3 percent reported poor quality of life and scores for 40 percent were in the excellent range after a year.

Dr. Julia Johnson, vice chairman of gynecology at the University of Vermont, noted that the women were about 10 years past the age when troublesome symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats, which can affect quality of life, are most likely to occur.