The lead paragraph of your March 14 article on estrogen and heart disease was incorrect and could mislead women into making ill-advised decisions about their health care.
The article misrepresents the data presented at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) scientific sessions from the Estrogen Replacement and Atherosclerosis (ERA) Study.
The ERA study investigated the effect of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in older women (65 years and older) with heart disease; it did not study any aspect of prevention in healthy women.
Therefore no judgment about the benefits of HRT in the prevention of heart disease in those women can be made.
The Associated Press story published in your newspaper drew erroneous conclusions that were not supported by the study.
Many studies have found that women on hormones have fewer heart attacks than women who are not on hormones.
Additionally, researchers at ACC reported that hormones help improve cholesterol profiles, improve dilation of the blood vessels and reduce thrombus formation.
And when hormones are used in combination with cholesterol-lowering drugs, more favorable changes in cholesterol profiles are produced than with either therapy alone.
Hormone therapy also prevents osteoporosis and eases menopausal symptoms, such as hot flashes and vaginal dryness.
It’s important that women who read the article understand that this new ERA study applies only to older women with existing coronary heart disease who take hormones for their cardiac conditions.
Based on a national database of women age 45 years or older, only 6 percent of women currently using HRT fit this description.
The misleading article published in your newspaper could inappropriately deter women from therapy that may help them prevent heart disease, the No. 1 killer of women in this country.
