Postmenopausal hormone therapy and cardiovascular disease in perspective.

The totality of data indicate that the window of opportunity for reducing mortality and coronary heart disease is initiation of hormone therapy (HT) within 6 years of menopause and/or by 60 years of age and continued for 6 years or more. Additionally, the risks of HT are rare (<1/1000) especially in younger postmenopausal women and comparable with other primary prevention therapies. In fact, as randomized controlled trial results accumulate, the more they look like the consistent observational data. These studies showed that young postmenopausal women with menopausal symptoms who use HT for long periods of time have lower rates of mortality and coronary heart disease than comparable postmenopausal women who do not use HT.