2023-07-04 03:56:49
menopausal hormone therapy Produced by Kim Min-joon iClickArt graphics used
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT), used to relieve menopausal symptoms, has been linked to an increased risk of dementia, a new study has found.
Hormone replacement therapy is the replacement administration of synthetic hormones such as estrogen and progesterone to relieve menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats that occur when female hormone secretion is stopped due to menopause.
A research team led by Dr. Nelsan Pourhadi at the Center for Dementia Research at the Royal University Hospital Rigshospitalet in Denmark announced that hormone replacement therapy is associated with an increased risk of dementia regardless of the age of onset, medical news portal Medpage Today and Healthday News. reported on the 3rd (local time).
Comparison of medical records (2000-2018) of 5589 women (50-60 years old) with dementia and 55,890 normal women (control group) in their 50s-60s with no history of dementia and no reason not to use hormone replacement therapy As a result of the analysis, the research team revealed that this was the case.
The average age at diagnosis of dementia among patients with dementia was 70 years.
The average age at which study subjects started estrogen/progestin (synthetic progesterone) hormone therapy was 53 years old, and the average duration of hormone administration was 3.8 years in the dementia group and 3.6 years in the control group.
Overall, women who used combined estrogen/progestin hormone therapy had a 24 percent higher incidence of dementia of any type, including Alzheimer’s disease, than women who had never used hormone replacement therapy, the researchers found.
Women who used hormone replacement therapy before age 55 also had an increased risk of dementia.
However, clinical trials have shown that using hormone replacement therapy for a short period before the age of 55 is not related to the risk of dementia.
The longer the duration of hormone replacement therapy, the higher the risk of dementia.
For example, if the duration of hormone administration was less than one year, the risk of dementia increased by 21%, 8 to 12 years by 39%, and 12 years or more by 74%.
The risk of dementia was similarly increased in women who continued to take the combination hormone daily or periodically (on the 10th to 14th day of each month).
However, oral progestin alone or estrogen administered as a vaginal suppository were not associated with dementia risk.
The research team explained that this result took into account related variables such as education level, income level, high blood pressure, diabetes, and thyroid disease.
However, the research team might not distinguish whether the dementia patients studied were patients with Alzheimer’s disease or other types of dementia such as vascular dementia, the research team said.
Studies have shown that estrogen can both protect and damage the brain.
Although the exact mechanism is unknown, the researchers point out that this suggests a biological possibility that hormone replacement therapy may be related to dementia.
In addition, rather than hormone replacement therapy itself being directly related to dementia, the research team added that women with menopausal symptoms severe enough to require hormone replacement therapy may have a high risk of dementia.
Longer use of hormone replacement therapy has been shown to increase the risk of dementia, but this does not prove that there is a causal relationship between hormone replacement therapy and dementia, the research team emphasized.
In addition, the results of these observational studies cannot be evidence to prove a causal relationship between hormone replacement therapy and dementia, the research team said.
Only clinical trials with randomly divided experimental and control groups can provide the strongest evidence, the research team added.
Relevant guidelines published in 2022 by the North American Menopause Society (NAMS) state that women experiencing hot flashes before age 60 or within 10 years of onset of menopause outweigh the benefits of using hormone replacement therapy.
However, postmenopausal women interested in hormone replacement therapy should discuss the pros and cons of hormone therapy with their doctor, the researchers recommend.
The findings were published in the latest issue of the British Medical Journal (BMJ).
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