title: Does hormonal replacement therapy actually protect against cardiovascular disease?
abstract: It is generally accepted that menopausal symptoms can be controlled by HRT. As additional (putative) benefits of HRT were discovered, it was claimed that such uses were also important. Soon, trials were instituted to test these assertions, some of them quite large and projected to last a long time (> or = 5 years). The most instructive for medical practice are the observational trials and, still more, randomized, controlled trials. Unfortunately, the results of these trials for both primary and secondary prevention of CHD are not in agreement, although the observational trials are mostly more favorable to the benefits of HRT on CHD. The present review considers both kinds of trials and their effects on primary and secondary CHD prevention. It also attempts to group the studies by their results and their implications for guiding patients in choices and decisions regarding HRT.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Perinatology, Medical University of Lublin, Poland.
authors.forename: Jaroslaw J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Oleszczuk
authors.forename: Michal
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wac
authors.forename: Wieslaw
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kanadys
authors.forename: Louis G
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Keith
mesh_terms: D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005260:Female; D020249:Hormone Replacement Therapy; D006801:Humans; D017698:Postmenopause; D011322:Primary Prevention; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic