A large study including 75,000 women suggests that low-dose HRT patches may be safer than tablets in terms of stroke risk, but the risk increases significantly with high dose patches.
The findings are based on a nested case-control study drawing data from the General Practice Research Database in the UK. Researchers compare a group of women who have stroke ( case group) to a group who do not ( control group) and found that women using low-dose HRT patches had no increased risk of stroke compared with those who had not used HRT patches, however, using high-dose patches had an increased risk of 89% compared with non-use.
Researchers concluded that low-dose HRT patches may be a safer alternative to oral HRT, although these results alone cannot prove causation, "this study should encourage further research on the importance of the route of administration to define the role of transdermal oestrogens in the therapeutic arsenal for the treatment of menopausal symptoms."
Critics say that this study could affect prescribing practice but it only looked at stroke risk while HRT is assocaited with other risks such as breast cancer, venous thromboembolism and heart disease. The study was published in the BMJ.
Source: Renoux C, Dell’Aniello S, Garbe E and Suissa S. Transdermal and oral hormone replacement therapy and the risk of stroke: a nested case-control study. BMJ 2010;340:c2519, (Published June 3 2010) full text via Athens
No comments:
Post a Comment