Complications (1)
- Weight gain after menopause
Lifestyle and home remedies (4)
- Diabetes and menopause: A twin challenge
- Fitness tips for menopause: Why physical activity matters
- Quit smoking: Proven strategies to help you quit
- see all in Lifestyle and home remedies
Risk factors (1)
- Weight gain after menopause
Symptoms (1)
- Vaginal atrophy
Treatments and drugs (2)
- Hormone therapy: Is it right for you?
- Hormone replacement therapy and your heart
Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
continued:
Hormone replacement therapy and your heart
What should you do?
To an average woman, the added heart risk from hormone therapy is no cause for alarm. Your individual risk of developing heart disease depends on many factors, including family medical history, personal medical history and lifestyle choices. Talk to your doctor about your personal risks. Chances are, they aren't significant enough to preclude hormone therapy for menopause symptoms.
But if you already have heart disease or you have a history of blood clots, proceed with caution. Work with your doctor to find the safest, most effective treatment for your menopause symptoms.
If you take hormone therapy, how can you limit the added risks?
- Start hormone therapy early. In the WHI, hormone therapy caused no significant increase in heart disease risk in women under age 60.
- Minimize the amount of medication you take. Use the lowest effective dose for the shortest amount of time needed to treat symptoms.
- Try a form of hormone therapy with limited systemic effects. Estrogen and progestin are available in many forms, including pills, skin patches, gels, vaginal creams and slow-releasing suppositories or rings that you place in your vagina. Some studies show that the route of medication administration may affect the risk of heart disease. There is some evidence that skin patches pose less risk of heart disease than do pills.
- Make healthy lifestyle changes. Counter the risks of hormone therapy by making heart-healthy lifestyle changes. Don't smoke or use tobacco products. Get regular physical activity. Eat a healthy diet focusing on fruits, vegetables, whole grains and low-fat protein. Maintain a healthy weight. And get regular health screenings to check your blood pressure and cholesterol levels to detect early signs of heart disease.
It's a balancing act
Women of all ages should take heart disease seriously. It's the leading cause of death for women 65 and older, the third-leading cause of death for women 25 to 44 and the second-leading cause of death for women 45 to 64.
At the same time, most women can safely take short-term hormone therapy for menopausal symptoms without significantly increasing the risk of heart disease. If you experience severe vaginal symptoms or wake up at night with hot flashes, don't avoid hormone therapy for fear of its risks. Instead, talk to your doctor about how you can relieve troublesome symptoms while protecting your heart.
Previous page(2 of 2)
