OBJECTIVE To determine whether transdermal compared with oral use of hormone replacement therapy reduces the risk of gallbladder disease in postmenopausal women. DESIGN Prospective cohort study (Million Women Study). SETTING Women registered with the National Health Service (NHS) in England and Scotland. PARTICIPANTS 1,001,391 postmenopausal women (mean age 56) recruited between 1996 and ...

BACKGROUND It is well documented that a daily oral dose of 0.625 mg of conjugated equine estrogen or 1-2 mg of 17beta-estradiol is needed to prevent postmenopausal bone loss. Recent studies have indicated that a lower dose of estrogen maybe as effective in maintaining bone mass. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of 3 dosages of transdermally administered 17beta-estradiol gel...

CONTEXT Recommendations for postmenopausal hormone therapy have changed since the Women's Health Initiative indicated that estrogen was harmful for use in disease prevention; however, treatment of menopausal symptoms with low-dose estrogen remains an approved indication for use. OBJECTIVE To compare the short-term efficacy and adverse effects of 2 commonly used estrogens, conjugated equine es...

barrier to the permeation of most drugs, and especially as a hydrophobic barrier against hydrophilic drugs and ionized drugs. One possible means of facilitating the transdermal delivery of ionic drugs is through ion-pair formation. Oppositely charged ions can interact to form new species known as ion-pairs. This association reduces or neutralizes electrostatic charges and consequently reduces t...

BACKGROUND In men, the feedback of gonadotropins is regulated by estrogens that come from the aromatization of testosterone, but the relative contribution to the inhibition of LH and FSH secretion by the amount of locally produced estrogens within the hypothalamus and/or the pituitary, and the amount of circulating estrogens still remains unknown. OBJECTIVE In order to evaluate the effect of ...

Natural progesterone creams are gaining popularity as a possible treatment for menopausal symptoms, and many women may be using them with estrogen. We planned to evaluate, using an open plan study, the systemic absorption of a combination of transdermal estrogen and progesterone. Women applied transdermal progesterone 40 mg and transdermal estrogen 1 mg daily over 48 weeks. Women were assessed ...

Estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) has been associated with favorable effects on risk factors for atherosclerosis. In observational studies ERT was also suggested to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease in postmenopausal women, but the cardioprotective role of estrogen has been challenged after negative results in randomized trials. However, the mechanisms of estrogen action in atheroscler...

Activated platelets serve as a catalyst for thrombin generation and a source of vasoactive and mitogenic factors affecting vascular remodeling. Oral menopausal hormone treatments (MHT) may carry greater thrombotic risk than transdermal products. This study compared effects of oral and transdermal MHT on platelet characteristics, platelet proteins, and platelet-derived microvesicles (MV) in rece...

Recent studies have postulated the contribution of nitric oxide (NO) released by the endothelium to the beneficial effects of estrogen. Despite a neuronal-type NO synthase (nNOS) described in neutrophils, less is known about the effect of estrogen in these cells. The aim of the present study was to analyze the expression of nNOS protein in human neutrophils under different estrogenic conditions...