Contrary to current medical practice, researchers of a new clinic at The
Toronto Hospital have found that Postmenopausal women with lupus can safely
be prescribed hormone replacement therapy
(Toronto, January 17,1996) With the use of databank research, researchers
of a new rheumatic diseases clinic at The Toronto Hospital have found that
prescribing hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to postmenopausal women with
systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) does not adversely affect their disease.
This finding is contrary to conventional medical wisdom.
Researchers of The Toronto Hospital's Centre for Prognosis Studies in the
Rheumatic Diseases have found no statistically significant difference in
disease activity between 16 women with lupus taking hormones and 32 women
with lupus who do not take the therapy.
Lupus is a chronic, autoimmune disease which causes inflammation of various
parts of the body, especially the skin, joints, blood and kidneys. It affects
men, women and children, however, it develops most frequently - nine out
of ten times - in women of childbearing age.
"Our study showed there was no difference in the amount of flares or
severity of flares in women taking hormones compared to the controls after
one year of observation," said Dr. Murray Urowitz, Director of the
Centre, and Professor of Medicine, University of Toronto. Flares are defined
as increases in lupus disease activity.
"The results from this study provide clinical evidence to show that
postmenopausal women with lupus may choose to pursue hormone replacement
therapy without affecting their disease," he adds.
This finding is contrary to conventional medical wisdom. Conventional practice
theory is that female hormones such as estrogen play a role in either initiating
or facilitating the clinical manifestations of lupus. In the past, animal
studies have shown that estrogen can increase lupus activity. For this reason,
physicians have been reluctant to prescribe estrogen to their patients.
Hormone replacement, a treatment for postmenopausal women using estrogen,
is of special interest to lupus researchers for a number of reasons. Postmenopausal
women not only suffer disabling symptoms such as hot flashes and vaginal
dryness, but postmenopausal women with lupus are also at a higher risk for
osteoporosis and atherosclerosis which can precipitate strokes and heart
attacks.
The results of these findings were presented at the annual American College
of Rheumatology conference held in San Francisco last November.
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