Just to confuse you even more - HRT now linked to Alzheimer's!

May 3 2007

To add to the utter confusion many women are feeling with regard to Hormone replacement therapy (HRT), new research is now suggesting HRT may reduce a woman's risk of Alzheimer's disease.

The research by a team at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, have found that if begun before the age of 65, HRT users were 50 per cent less likely to develop Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia than women who did not have the treatment.

However it is a different kettle of fish for women taking HRT after 65 as then a woman's risk of dementia in some cases doubled.

These latest findings add to the on-going controversy and confusion surrounding HRT but does support claims the treatment should be given only to younger, post-menopausal women.

It was only last month that scientists at Cancer Research UK said a link between HRT and ovarian cancer may have led to the death of 1,000 women in 14 years and HRT has in the past been associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, heart attacks and stroke.

The new research, the Women's Health Initiative study followed 7,153 healthy women aged 65 to 79 for a five year period and during that time, 106 developed dementia.

Women who began oestrogen-only therapy after 65 increased their chance of developing dementia by as much as 50 per cent.

That risk jumped to almost double for women using the oestrogen-plus-progestin form of HRT.

However women who started HRT before 65 prior to enrolling in the study, were 50 per cent less likely to develop dementia than those who did not.

Study leader, Dr Victor Henderson says more research is needed to support these findings and to understand how hormone therapy affects the long-term cognitive health of women who begin use before age 65.

The research was presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in Boston.