| The landmark Postmenopausal Estrogen and Progestin Interventions (PEPI) Trial, funded by the National Institutes of Health, provides important information to consider when deciding if hormone therapy is right for you. Before the PEPI Trial, researchers had shown that estrogen therapy after menopause protects women's bones from osteoporosis and women's hearts from cardiovascular disease. Studies had also shown that estrogen taken alone can cause endometrial cancer in women who still have their uterus. The purpose of the three-year PEPI Trial (1987 - 1990) was to test the effects of estrogen therapy on the following factors that affect a women's risk of heart disease: HDL (good cholesterol, systolic blood pressure, fibrinogen and insulin. The 875 postmenopausal women aged 45 to 64 years used in the study were divided into five groups, each given a different hormone regimen: - A placebo (no hormone).
- Estrogen (0.625 mg of Premarin).
- Estrogen (0.625 mg Premarin) and progestin (2.5 mg Provera) taken daily.
- Estrogen (0.625 mg Premarin) taken daily and progestin (10 mg) taken for 12 days each month.
- Estrogen (0.625 mg Premarin) and micronized progesterone (200 mg progesterone USP) taken daily.
Study results included the following: - All of the estrogen/progestin combinations produced significantly greater increases in HDL (good) cholesterol levels than the placebo.
- Estrogen combined with natural, micronized progesterone provided the best cardiovascular protection of all the combined regimens, nearly equal to taking estrogen alone.
- Combining estrogen with progesterone or progestin was shown to help protect women against endometrial cancer.
- The study also discovered that women taking hormones after menopause gained less weight than women taking no hormones at all.
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