Findings indicate risk from hormone therapy very small, short-lived.
Preliminary findings from one of the nation's largest medical studies shows older women taking estrogen had a slightly higher risk of heart attack, stroke or a blood clot during their first two years of treatment compared with women who took a placebo. But the preliminary findings add to growing questions about estrogen's effect on the heart. Two other recent studies found no evidence estrogen helped the hearts of postmenopausal women who already have heart disease. Yet, the hope behind estrogen was not that it could help existing heart disease, but that it could prevent or delay it, something the Women's Health Initiative is studying. An estimated 16 million postmenopausal women already take hormone replacement therapy, either estrogen alone or combined with progestin.