Word: estrogenous
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When is it a good time to take estrogen? Every new study on hormone replacement therapy and menopause seems to confuse the question further. Taking estrogen and progestin has been linked to increased risks of heart disease, stroke and even breast cancer in postmenopausal women. But what about taking estrogen alone, for women who have had their uterus or ovaries removed? Studies have suggested that there's a critical, age-dependent window before menopause during which the hormone - either the body's natural estrogen or that which is introduced during therapy - is protective. Now, two new, related studies...
...larger of the two studies - a broad review of data from about 3,000 interviews with women in Olmsted County, Minn. - is among the first to show that ovarian preservation and estrogen therapy protect brain function. Of the study participants, who were all matched for age, 813 women had one ovary removed and 676 women had both ovaries removed, while the 1,472 women in the control group had both ovaries intact. Half of the women had oophorectomies because of a benign condition, such as infection or cysts, and the other half had their ovaries removed prophylactically to prevent ovarian...
...younger the age of the woman at the time of oophorectomy, the higher her risk of cognitive impairment or dementia because there is a longer period in which she is deprived of estrogen and neuroprotection," says Rocca. "Our study suggests that if there is good reason to remove the ovaries before age 50, there is good reason to consider [estrogen] treatment until 50, the age when a woman naturally reaches menopause...
...Obstetrics & Gynecology, Parker found that hysterectomy with removal of the ovaries increased women's risk of dying from heart disease. More recent studies also support the idea that leaving the ovaries intact benefits women's long-term health because ovaries continue to release significant amounts of the necessary hormones estrogen and progesterone after menopause. Still, physicians have not seen the expected decrease in the number of hysterectomies, and rates of oophorectomy are climbing. The reasons: Parker says that doctors have not learned many of the new alternative techniques, which can be difficult to master, and insurance companies continue...
...This telescoping effect, they now know, has a lot to do with the way women metabolize alcohol. Females are endowed with less alcohol dehydrogenase--the first enzyme in the stomach lining that starts to break down the ethanol in liquor--and less total body water than men. Together with estrogen, these factors have a net concentrating effect on the alcohol in the blood, giving women a more intense hit with each drink. The pleasure from that extreme high may be enough for some women to feel satisfied and therefore drink less. For others, the intense intoxication is so enjoyable that...