Estrogen Selected Research

Estrogen and Women’s Heart Disease
Grodstein F, Stampfer MJ. Estrogen for women at varying risk of coronary disease. Maturitas 1998;30:19-26.

Study: Researchers cited that estrogen was beneficial for heart disease risk. “However, few studies have assessed the impact of estrogen use among women with a distinctly higher cardiovascular risk.”

The researchers stated: “Analysis of the effect of estrogen within different risk factor categories in the 16-year follow up of the Nurses’ Health Study confirms that although relevant risk estimates are highly similar, the magnitude of the protective effect of estrogen is more pronounced among women with high baseline risk of disease.”

Estrogen, Depression, and Blood Pressure

Canada SA, Hofkamp M, Gall EP, et al. Estrogen replacement therapy, subsyndromal depression, and orthostatic blood pressure regulation. Behav Med. 2003;29:101-106.

Study: From the abstract: “Although estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) alleviates depressed moods in postmenopausal women, it is not known whether ERT is equally effective in reducing affective and somatic depressive complaints. One of the authors’ goals in this study was to examine possible differences between women receiving and not receiving ERT.”

The researchers stated: “The authors studied a group of postmenopausal women. Somatic symptoms in the ERT group were significantly lower than in the Non-ERT group. Affective scores were only marginally lower in the ERT group…In response to orthostatic challenge, the change in systolic blood pressure was significantly smaller in the ERT group. Apparently ERT is associated with more effective blood pressure regulation.”

Breast Cancer and Estrogen Replacement Therapy
Researchers writing in the August 6, 2005 edition of the British Medical Journal say maybe the risk of developing breast cancer from estrogen replacement therapy is not as great as everyone thought.

The researchers noted that estrogen therapy accounted for eight additional cases out of 10,000 women.

In 2002, headlines cited that researchers discovered that estrogen therapy could double the risk for getting breast cancer.Read abstract

Estrogen and Physical Appearance
Women With Higher Levels of Estrogen Have Prettier Faces
Researchers at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland announced that women who had higher amounts of estrogen in their urine were found to be more attractive than women who had lesser amounts.

What Effects Does Estrogen Have On The Skin?
Researchers have found that “Estrogen loss at menopause has a profound influence on skin.” Writing in the medical journal Climacteric, study authors noted, “Estrogen treatment in postmenopausal women has been repeatedly shown to increase collagen content, dermal thickness and elasticity, and data on the effect of estrogen on skin water content are also promising.”

Hormone Replacement Therapy and Possible Cardiovascular Benefits in Women
Researchers writing in the medical journal Climacteric say that “Women who receive 2-3 years of HRT after menopause do not have increased all-cause mortality, and results of the present study suggest relative cardiovascular benefits compared to those who had not used hormones.” Read more

Estrogen and Sun Damaged Skin
Researchers at the University of Michigan Department of Dermatology are currently recruiting subjects to participate in a study to test Estrogen’s effect on the skin.

Risk of stroke and hormone replacement therapy
Researchers writing in the medical journal Maturitas say that there is no significant association between hormone therapy and risk of total stroke in women during 10.5 years follow-up.

Postmenopause and periodontal disease
A recent study in the Journal of Periodontology says that in an 11.7 year follow up, 57.5 percent of women lost at least one tooth after menopause.