The purpose of this article was to review, with special attention to the hypothesized mechanisms of atherosclerosis and thrombosis, the literature on the association of estrogens and progestins with cardiovascular disease. The data sources included recent reviews and their citations as well as literature searches of Medline. For coronary heart disease, we relied on a recent meta-analysis; for the lipid effects of estrogens and progestins, we refer to recent reviews and studies; for stroke, we identified all cohort and case-control studies; and for the effects of hormones on coagulation factors, we identified all relevant studies. The lipid effects of estrogens in postmenopausal women probably prevent atherosclerosis, and we would expect long duration of use rather than current use to provide the greatest benefit. Few epidemiologic studies have, however, assessed duration of estrogen use. High doses of estrogens are likely to be thrombogenic during current use, and it is possible that even moderate doses may increase the risk of clotting among women who smoke or who have existing coronary atherosclerosis. Compared with the lipid effects of estrogens alone, the lipid effects of combined therapy with progestins may increase atherosclerosis. The effect of progestins on coagulation factors is largely unknown, and no epidemiologic study has assessed the risk of cardiovascular disease associated with the use of combined hormone therapy in postmenopausal women. Cardiovascular risk or benefit associated with the use of postmenopausal hormones may involve several competing mechanisms, including effects on prostaglandins and vascular tone as well as atherosclerosis and thrombosis.
(Arch Intern Med. 1993;153:1421-1427)
Register and get free email Table of Contents alerts, saved searches, PowerPoint downloads, CME quizzes, and more
Subscribe for full-text access to content from 1998 forward and a host of useful features
Activate your current subscription (AMA members and current subscribers)
Purchase Online Access to this article for 24 hours
Country-Specific Mortality and Growth Failure in Infancy and Yound Children and Association With Material Stature
Use interactive graphics and maps to view and sort country-specific infant and early dhildhood mortality and growth failure data and their association with maternal
Instructions
Thank you for submitting a comment on this article. It will be reviewed by JAMA Internal Medicine editors. You will be notified when your comment has been published. Comments should not exceed 500 words of text and 10 references.
Do not submit personal medical questions or information that could identify a specific patient, questions about a particular case, or general inquiries to an author. Only content that has not been published, posted, or submitted elsewhere should be submitted. By submitting this Comment, you and any coauthors transfer copyright to the journal if your Comment is posted.
* = Required Field
Disclosure of Any Conflicts of Interest* Indicate all relevant conflicts of interest of each author below, including all relevant financial interests, activities, and relationships within the past 3 years including, but not limited to, employment, affiliation, grants or funding, consultancies, honoraria or payment, speakers’ bureaus, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, royalties, donation of medical equipment, or patents planned, pending, or issued. If all authors have none, check "No potential conflicts or relevant financial interests" in the box below. Please also indicate any funding received in support of this work. The information will be posted with your response.
Some tools below are only available to our subscribers or users with an online account.
Download citation file:
Web of Science® Times Cited: 75
Customize your page view by dragging & repositioning the boxes below.
More Listings atJAMACareerCenter.com >
and access these and other features:
Register Now
Enter your username and email address. We'll send you a link to reset your password.
Enter your username and email address. We'll send instructions on how to reset your password to the email address we have on record.
Need assistance?
Athens and Shibboleth are access management services that provide single sign-on to protected resources. They replace the multiple user names and passwords necessary to access subscription-based content with a single user name and password that can be entered once per session. It operates independently of a user's location or IP address. If your institution uses Athens or Shibboleth authentication, please contact your site administrator to receive your user name and password.