Menopausal Hormone Therapy and Heart Health

Health Wellness

Image result for menopause

Almost all women will eventually go through menopause, when certain hormones are no longer produced, ending the menstrual cycles and chances of getting pregnant.

However, the lack of those vital female hormones has other effects on a woman’s body, both physically and mentally. Her moods change and she often loses most or all desire for sexual relations. She can become more irritable or so emotional that the slightest thing can send her to tears or into a flying rage.

One former co-worker of mine said that he wanted to lock his wife up until after she went through the menopausal change, as life at home was extremely unpredictable for him and the kids. The mental or emotional changes and fluctuations can be so severe that it has ended some marriages because the husband could not stand it anymore.

The physical changes involved with the decreased hormones can leave a woman with an extremely dry vagina that becomes painful, especially during intercourse, which also frustrates many a husband.

For the past few decades, a number of doctors recommend some form of menopausal hormone therapy (MHT). This could involve taking natural or synthetic hormones either orally or via injections. The doses can be mild to fairly strong, all depending upon the woman and the severity of her symptoms.

It seems that menopausal hormone therapy has become very popular and common but has also received some questions as to some of the possible side effects, including how, if at all, it impacts heart heath.

I’ve seen some reports that claimed that MHT could have a negative impact on heart health, some reported a positive impact on heart health and many have questioned any impact on heart health.

According to a recent report:

“The effect of menopausal hormone therapy (MHT), previously known as hormone replacement therapy, on cardiovascular health in post-menopausal women has been controversial and unclear. Extensive data had suggested MHT to have a protective effect on the heart, leading to MHT being routinely prescribed for prevention of heart disease, but subsequent studies to confirm this have varied in their results.”

“To tackle this longstanding question, researchers have now used data from UK Biobank — a database of health questionnaire data, biological samples and physical measurements from over 500,000 people. UK Biobank holds cardiovascular MRI data — the gold standard for imaging and analysing heart structure and function — which could help overcome the lack of detailed data on the effects of MHT on cardiovascular health.”

“Lead author Dr Mihir Sanghvi, from the team of scientists led by Professor Steffen Petersen at Queen Mary University of London, said: ‘This is the first study to look at the relationship between the use of menopausal hormone therapy and subtle changes in the structure and function of the heart, which can be predictors of future heart problems. This is an important issue because there are 2.3 million women using menopausal hormone therapy in the UK today and current evidence of its effect on heart health is conflicted and controversial’.”

“‘Using UK Biobank data, we’ve now been able to show that the use of menopausal hormone therapy is not associated with any adverse changes to the heart’s structure and function, and may be associated with some healthier heart characteristics’.”

Unlike some doctors have done in the past, the researchers say that MHT should not be used to try to improve heart health but should be used for the intended purpose and when doing so, could have a positive impact on heart health.

Heart Health Hormones Menopause

Related Posts