This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on ISI (100)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related article  • Similar articles in JAMA

Suzanne W. Fletcher, MD, MSc; Graham A. Colditz, MD, DrPH

JAMA. 2002;288:366-368.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Approximately 38% of postmenopausal women in the United States use hormone replacement therapy.¹ In 2000, 46 million prescriptions were written for Premarin (conjugated estrogens), making it the second most frequently prescribed medication in the United States and accounting for more than $1 billion in sales, and 22.3 million prescriptions were written for Prempro (conjugated estrogens plus medroxyprogesterone acetate).² While US Food and Drug Administration–approved indications for hormone therapy include relief of menopausal symptoms and prevention of osteoporosis, long-term use has been in vogue to prevent a range of chronic conditions, especially heart disease. Estrogen alone was the dominant hormone until the increased risk of endometrial cancer led to the addition of progestins for women with an intact uterus. Since the mid-1980s, combined estrogen/progestin use has steadily increased.³

Evidence on the potential risks and benefits of combined estrogen/progestin has slowly accumulated, . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Author Affiliations: Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention (Dr Fletcher) and the Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine (Dr Colditz), Harvard Medical School, Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health (Drs Fletcher and Colditz), and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care (Dr Fletcher), Boston, Mass.

RELATED ARTICLE

Risks and Benefits of Estrogen Plus Progestin in Healthy Postmenopausal Women: Principal Results From the Women's Health Initiative Randomized Controlled Trial
Writing Group for the Women's Health Initiative Investigators
JAMA. 2002;288(3):321-333.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Menopause and the virtuous woman: the importance of the moral order in accounting for medical decision making
Stephens and Breheny
Health (London) 2008;12:7-24.
ABSTRACT  

Nongenomic, endothelium-independent effects of estrogen on human coronary smooth muscle are mediated by type I (neuronal) NOS and PI3-kinase-Akt signaling
Han et al.
Am. J. Physiol. Heart Circ. Physiol. 2007;293:H314-H321.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Effects of Hormone Replacement Therapy Type and Route of Administration on Plasma Matrix Metalloproteinases and Their Tissue Inhibitors in Postmenopausal Women
Lewandowski et al.
J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab. 2006;91:3123-3130.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Reducing the "Risk" of Chemoprevention: Defining and Targeting High Risk--2005 AACR Cancer Research and Prevention Foundation Award Lecture.
Lippman and Lee
Cancer Res. 2006;66:2893-2903.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Estrogen-induced contraction of coronary arteries is mediated by superoxide generated in vascular smooth muscle
White et al.
Am. J. Physiol. Heart Circ. Physiol. 2005;289:H1468-H1475.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Rethinking Gender Differences in Health: Why We Need to Integrate Social and Biological Perspectives
Rieker and Bird
J. Gerontol. B Psychol. Sci. Soc. Sci. 2005;60:S40-S47.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Is the Estrogen Controversy Over? Deconstructing the Women's Health Initiative Study: A Critical Evaluation of the Evidence
HARMAN et al.
Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 2005;1052:43-56.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Epidemiology and Prevention of Breast Cancer
Colditz
Cancer Epidemiol. Biomarkers Prev. 2005;14:768-772.
FULL TEXT  

Resveratrol and Estradiol Rapidly Activate MAPK Signaling through Estrogen Receptors {alpha} and {beta} in Endothelial Cells
Klinge et al.
J. Biol. Chem. 2005;280:7460-7468.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Endogenous Postmenopausal Hormones and Serum Lipids: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study
Mudali et al.
J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab. 2005;90:1202-1209.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Hormone Therapy Prescribing Patterns in the United States
Buist et al.
Obstet Gynecol 2004;104:1042-1050.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

To Have or to Take: Discourse, Positioning, and Narrative Identity in Women's Accounts of HRT
Stephens et al.
Health (London) 2004;8:329-350.
ABSTRACT  

Menopause in crisis post-Women's Health Initiative? A view based on personal clinical experience
Neves-e-Castro
Hum Reprod 2003;18:2512-2518.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Evaluating Medication Effects Outside of Clinical Trials: New-User Designs
Ray
Am J Epidemiol 2003;158:915-920.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Issues to debate on the Women's Health Initiative study: Failure of estrogen plus progestin therapy for prevention of breast cancer risk
Luukkainen
Hum Reprod 2003;18:1559-1561.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Effects of specific post-menopausal hormone therapies on bone mineral density in post-menopausal women: a meta-analysis
Doren et al.
Hum Reprod 2003;18:1737-1746.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Measuring the Effectiveness of Inhaled Corticosteroids for COPD Is Not Easy!
Samet
Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. 2003;168:1-2.
FULL TEXT  

The Size and Sign of Treatment Effects in Sex Offender Therapy
RICE and HARRIS
Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 2003;989:428-440.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Health status of users of hormone replacement therapy by hysterectomy status in Western Australia
Lambert et al.
J. Epidemiol. Community Health 2003;57:294-300.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Making decisions about hormone replacement therapy
Rymer et al.
BMJ 2003;326:322-326.
FULL TEXT  

Effectiveness of Estrogen Replacement in Restoration of Cognitive Function after Long-Term Estrogen Withdrawal in Aging Rats
Markowska and Savonenko
J. Neurosci. 2002;22:10985-10995.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Hormone Replacement Following Early Menopause
Cooper et al.
JAMA 2002;288:2824-2825.
FULL TEXT  

Message about hormone replacement therapy is unclear
Dixon
BMJ 2002;325:1036-1036.
FULL TEXT  

Are There Differences Between Women's and Men's Antidepressant Responses?
Quitkin et al.
Am. J. Psychiatry 2002;159:1848-1854.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Invited Commentary * Author's Response
Black and Brant-Zawadzki
RadioGraphics 2002;22:1536-1539.
FULL TEXT  

Cancer Prevention Science and Practice
Lippman and Hong
Cancer Res. 2002;62:5119-5125.
FULL TEXT  

The Importance of the Journal Embargo
Fontanarosa and DeAngelis
JAMA 2002;288:748-750.
FULL TEXT