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Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death in women.
Many mechanistic studies of the effects of estrogen on lipoproteins, hemostasis, carbohydrate metabolism, and vessel wall tone and reactivity support a cardioprotective role for estrogen. Furthermore, bias may influence the risk estimates. In addition, there was an early increase in the risk of thromboembolic events. Although many mechanistic and observational studies suggest that ERT reduces the risk of morbidity and mortality from CHD in postmenopausal women, the only large, randomized, controlled study of this question to date failed to confirm this. According to the American Heart Association, cardiovascular disease was the number one cause of death in women in 1997.