Low doses of oestrogen 'safe' (Financial Times, 21 July)

The Financial Times contains a short article reporting that two years after a report raised doubts about whether older women should be taking oestrogen to relieve menopausal symptoms and preserve bone density, a new study has shown that extremely low doses of the hormone caused no ill effects. Scientists at the San Francisco VA Medical Centre gave a group of 417 post-menopausal women either a daily .014 milligram dose of estradiol, a form of oestrogen, or a placebo through a skin patch for two years. At the end of the study there was no difference between the two groups. In 2004, a study sponsored by the US National Institutes of Health suggested that oestrogen was associated with an increased risk of dementia, heart attack and stroke among women aged 65 and older. Some of the article can be viewed via the link below, but subscription is needed for the full article.

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