The Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) remains one of the most highly quoted when debating the benefits and risks of hormone therapy.
In the WHI studies, the incidence of diabetes was reduced with the use of hormone therapy, particularly combined estrogen and progestin therapy.
In a new study, researchers found hormone therapy decreases the number of metabolites that are directly linked with Type 2 diabetes.
The research was conducted by a team from Ohio State University.
The team utilized data from a prior study which measured approximately 370 metabolites on 1,362 women involved in the WHI.
Researchers selected nine metabolites that were previously found to be strongly linked to the development of Type 2 diabetes in other studies to see if they were affected by randomized hormone therapy.
Of the nine targeted metabolites, seven were strongly decreased with the use of hormone therapy consisting of a combination of estrogen and progestin.
The team found that the decreases were more pronounced with the use of estrogen and progestin combined than with estrogen alone.
This result parallels the findings from the WHI on the effect of hormone therapy on the incidence of type 2 diabetes.
The team says it’s valuable for healthcare providers to better understand the full spectrum of potential risks and benefits of hormone therapy for the management of menopausal symptoms, particularly given the debilitating effects of diabetes and its increased incidence in the United States.
The lead author of the study is Dr. Heather Hirsch from The Ohio State University Medical Center.
The study was presented in The North American Menopause Society (NAMS) 2019 Annual Meeting.
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