Menopausal hormone therapy an cardiovascular risk. Postmenopausal women management: CNGOF and GEMVi clinical practice guidelines

Cardiovascular risk is one of the major challenges of menopausal hormone therapy (MHT). Thus, during a consultation of menopause, it is essential to considering the classic cardiovascular risk factors but also those more specific to women in order to evaluate the level of cardiovascular risk: high risk, intermediate risk or low risk. Cardiovascular disease (myocardial infarction or ischemic stroke) are rare disease in women compared to men. However, they represent the leading cause of death in women after menopause in France. Publications of randomized trials have widely questioned the expected benefit of MHT on arterial risk. It should be noted that almost all of these trials concerned the combination of orally conjugated equine estrogens (ECE) associated or not with medroxyprogesterone acetate. Meta-analyses of all randomized trials show an increased risk of ischemic stroke associated with the use of oral MHT while the use of transdermal estrogen therapy combined with progesterone will be safe. The risk of coronary heart disease is not increased and appears to be significantly reduced when the MHT is started less than 10 years after menopause or before the age of 60. These results suggest that the timing of initiation of the MHT, the type of MHT and all of the risk factors should be carefully considered before starting MHT.

Published by Gynecologie, obstetrique, fertilite & senologie, 2021. The guideline itself is at the source linked here.

doi.org/10.1016/j.gofs.2021.03.017