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Merger ends women’s health care at hospital

August 30, 2007

AMSTERDAM — Amsterdam Memorial Hospital will end its women’s health care program, which offers counseling, contraception and tubal ligation surgery, if it merges with nearby St. Mary’s.

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Hospital officials hope two local agencies in the city will take over the program: New Dimensions in Health Care, a clinic serving low-income patients, and Centro Civico of Amsterdam Inc., the Latino outreach program.

Because St. Mary’s is a Catholic hospital, it does not offer contraception or perform tubal ligations. Following a merger, both hospitals would operate under the St. Mary’s name.

The hospitals announced last week they have signed a letter of intent to merge, but the plan is not definite and requires state approval.

Amsterdam Memorial says its women’s health care program may have been in danger anyway. It’s funded by a $223,000 state grant set to expire at the end of the year, and the state has said it wants such programs to operate in small community clinics as opposed to hospitals.

“The services that are provided under this funding would best be provided through another provider,” said Claire Pospisil, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health, who declined to elaborate.

Donald Massey, president and chief executive of Amsterdam Memorial, said the hospital was the last in the state providing the services under the state grant.

“I don’t think we ever thought we would keep the service,” he said. “At the end of the day, the state needs to make the selection.”

Discount Pharmacy - Buy Pharmacy at discount prices including free shipping.Discount Pharmacy provides confortable and easy way to order discount pharmacy online.The program provides funding for family planning services, but not for abortion — a procedure Amsterdam does not provide. It’s that procedure that has been the cause of controversy at a similar planned merger in Schenectady.

There, Ellis Hospital is set to take over Bellevue Woman’s Hospital and then merge with St. Clare’s Hospital, according to a plan approved by the state. However, questions remain about whether Bellevue/Ellis will continue to offer abortions and other reproductive procedures once the merger with St. Clare’s is completed. A Planned Parenthood clinic in Schenectady also offers such services.

The director of health center operations at New Dimensions in Amsterdam said the center is a long way from agreeing to take over Amsterdam Memorial’s services.

“We’re in the negotiation and the taking phase as to what it would mean to New Dimensions,” said Roseanne Henley.

However, it’s unlikely that tubal ligation and other procedures would be offered at the New Dimensions clinic because it is not equipped for such surgeries, she said.

The center is part of the group Liberty, which provides services to the developmentally disabled. New Dimensions gets about 15,000 patient visits a year, with more than a half-dozen dentists, family-care doctors and specialists providing treatment.

Officials from Centro Civico could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

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Kuwaiti woman minister resigns

August 26, 2007

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Special gift helps restore woman’s health

August 19, 2007

I bet everybody would like to have a boss as nice as Southmountain Children and Family Services Executive Director Chris Jernigan.

The Morganton City Council recently recognized Jernigan for his act of kindness, a gift that significantly improved and possibly saved the life of one of his employees.

In March, Jernigan volunteered to donate a kidney to Lisa White, his friend and assistant.

Several years ago, White found out she had polycystic kidney disease, a potentially life-threatening genetic condition where cysts form on a person’s kidneys. Earlier this year, White learned from her doctors that she would need a kidney transplant.

When White began the search for donor matches, Jernigan said he had no reservations about offering to help.

Jernigan said that as soon as tests revealed that he would be a good donor match, he and his wife, Marlene Jernigan,realized that he would give up one of his kidneys.

“It didn’t take much discussion to decide to do it,” said Jernigan. “After the initial decision, neither one of us gave it a second thought.”

He attributes his giving attitude to the philosophy of an aunt who suffered from cancer. “She believed that if you are doing what God wants you to do, you’ll be OK,” he said.

“I don’t see this as a hero thing,” he continued. “To me, the ones working every day to make our community better — people who join civic clubs, teachers, firemen — these people are the heroes.”

News of his gift spread from local news outlets to CNN and finally resulted in an interview on “Good Morning America.” Despite the media attention, he does not see his act of kindness as a big deal. In fact, at first he specifically did not want any publicity for the kidney transplant.

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However, he said that once it became clear that the word was out, he decided to use the opportunity to let people know about the importance of living organ donation.

“I want to promote to people that it’s not that difficult to be a living donor. I never thought about it until Lisa was in need, but there’s a huge need for it,” said Jernigan.

In fact, White’s brother is now in need of a kidney transplant. He has had trouble finding a donor match, but thanks to the “Good Morning America” interview, seven people from across the country have stepped up and offered their help.

Jernigan, who had never before had surgery, went to Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem with White for the surgery on May 29. They are now both back at work and feeling fine.

White, who has been with Southmountain Children and Family Services for almost 12 years, said she is feeling better than ever.

“I’m feeling fantastic compared to before the surgery,” she said. “I have extra energy I don’t even know what to do with.”

White explained that her health had been steadily declining for about seven years. Jernigan only saw the strain showing during the last two years, however.

“For the past year and a half, she’s been struggling,” said Jernigan. “It was becoming difficult for her to get up and make it to work. She had little energy, was sick to her stomach and felt bad all the time.”

“Now she looks like a million bucks,” he added.

Morganton Mayor Mel Cohen and the Morganton City Council recognized Jernigan as the first order of business at the Aug. 6 City Council meeting. The mayor presented Jernigan with an award coin for his humanitarian act.

Jernigan said he is proud to receive such an honor from the City of Morganton.

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Ex-health aide admits raping helpless woman

August 18, 2007

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) _ A former health aide linked by DNA to the rape of a blind, mentally retarded and quadriplegic woman pleaded guilty Friday.

Dalo Richard, 30, of Albany, pleaded guilty to first-degree rape and is expected to be sentenced to 18 years in prison.

The attack came to light when the victim, who has only limited ability to speak, gave birth to a healthy child whose DNA was matched against people who had contact with the woman last summer at a suburban Albany facility run by the Center for Disability Services, police said at the time of Richard’s arrest.

Discount Pharmacy - Buy Pharmacy at discount prices including free shipping.Discount Pharmacy provides confortable and easy way to order discount pharmacy online.”I just want to know if the family of the victim is here,” Richard said in court Friday. “I sincerely apologize for the crime I committed.”

“I don’t know that I have seen a case like this before,” said Chief Assistant District Attorney Mark Harris. “I hope I never see one again.”

Richard had faced up to 25 years in prison before the plea bargain, which includes five years of state supervision after he’s released.

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Genetic Testing Helps Woman Make Informed Decisions About Health Care

August 10, 2007

That’s the first question San Francisco writer Doreen DeSalvo poses when asked whether she regrets getting tested — and testing positively — for Lynch syndrome.

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Lynch syndrome is a hereditary cancer that carries a very high risk of colon cancer and an above-normal risk of endometrial, ovarian and other cancers. Far from regretting her decision, DeSalvo — whose father and brother were stricken with colon cancer in their 40s — now feels she possesses the knowledge to avoid the same fate.

“Because I know this, I’m less likely to end up like my dad,” she says. “I always tell myself that I have a piece of information that could save my life.”

When DeSalvo’s brother was 45, about the age their father and other relatives were when diagnosed with colon cancer, he scheduled an appointment for a colonoscopy. Although he was asymptomatic, the screening revealed cancerous tumors the size of golf balls.

Though living in a different state, he tracked down Peggy Conrad, a genetic counselor at UCSF’s Cancer Risk Program, and learned that his family’s high incidence of cancer was more than mere coincidence. The center facilitated testing and counseling for DeSalvo’s brother near his home, and after the gene was discovered, DeSalvo herself was tested at UCSF. Like her brother, she tested positively for the mutation of the MLH1 gene, the gene that accounts for the majority of detected mutations in families with Lynch syndrome.

Genetic Testing

DeSalvo soon realized she was at the right place. For 10 years, the UCSF Cancer Risk Program, part of the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center, has been the largest and most comprehensive genetic testing center for cancer susceptibility in Northern California.

Together with 95 percent of fellow patients who receive genetic counseling in the Cancer Risk Program, DeSalvo is participating in a 20-year follow-up protocol. Through the protocol, the center’s counselors provide updated information regarding hereditary cancer, and patients contact the center when there is a change in their family or personal history.

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Through the Cancer Risk Program, DeSalvo was also able to participate in two clinical studies funded by the National Cancer Institute. This ongoing relationship with patients can lead to new gene test results, new preventive interventions or involvement in the latest clinical trials.

“I felt like I was getting advice from people who really understand that this isn’t normal colon cancer,” DeSalvo says. “The doctors and counselors at UCSF are fantastic resources I wouldn’t find anywhere else.”

The knowledge that DeSalvo gained at UCSF has made her proactive about getting yearly screenings, and has empowered her to make more informed decisions about her overall health care.

“The fact is, learning that you have the mutation isn’t a death sentence; it’s merely an indication that you need more screening and monitoring,” DeSalvo says. “Before, I tended to have my head in the sand, and get a colonoscopy every other year, but no more. I’ve determined that having a yearly screening is far more convenient than having cancer.”

On her father’s 52nd birthday, DeSalvo recalls him saying, “I’ve now lived longer than any other man my mother was related to.”

Through surgery, chemotherapy and good fortune, he overcame the odds and beat advanced colon cancer. Thanks to the knowledge and expertise of the UCSF Cancer Risk Program, it’s a battle his daughter may never have to fight

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Child Health Care Tangled in Anti-abortion Politics

August 7, 2007

Whether out of genuine compassionate conservatism or a fear of voter retaliation, two ordinarily reliable right-wing Republican senators, Orrin Hatch and Chuck Grassley, have “implored” George Bush not to follow through with his promised veto of the expansion of SCHIP, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program that began in 1997. SCHIP, a hugely popular program across the political spectrum, provides health care for children whose parents make too much to be eligible for Medicaid but are too poor to purchase private insurance on their own. While the House and Senate bills are somewhat different, each would increase funding substantially more than the Bush administration is offering. The Senate proposed a $35 billion boost over the next five years, compared to Bush’s $5 billion increase. To put these increased costs into perspective, the Senate bill would cost less in the next five years than the government will spend in the next four months in Iraq. Bush’s Orwellian reason for opposing the expansion of SCHIP is that the program works too well. Namely, that people would get the idea that perhaps a proper role of government is to provide health care to its citizens. “My concern is that when you expand eligibility … you’re really beginning to open up an avenue for people to switch from private insurance to the government,” Bush said in an interview with Washington Post reporters. But Bush’s deplorable response to expanding SCHIP is not just about opposing government-provided services. Like so much else in his presidency, the Bush administration’s record on SCHIP is also entangled in anti-abortion politics. In 2002, his Department of Health and Human Services issued a regulation that stipulated “unborn children” — but not the pregnant women carrying them — were eligible for SCHIP funds. This move contradicted well-established standards within the medical community. Both the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Academy of Pediatrics have stated that the pregnant woman and her fetus should be treated together. Immediately after this regulation was issued, health care providers feared that funding for crucial pregnancy-related services that did not directly relate to the “unborn child” — such as pain medication during delivery and postpartum services — would be denied to women under SCHIP. The twelve states that have elected to use SCHIP funds for pregnancy care have largely managed to get around this restriction through various maneuvers; however, some gaps remain.

Discount Pharmacy - Buy Pharmacy at discount prices including free shipping.Discount Pharmacy provides confortable and easy way to order discount pharmacy online.In Texas, for example, the SCHIP program does not pay for certain services that could affect a woman during her pregnancy, such as cardiac care and asthma management. And although that state does pay for postpartum care, it does not provide for family planning services at that visit, which is an expected standard of care, according to medical guidelines. Why did the Bush administration propose this cruel and absurd policy in the first place? The availability of services to poor pregnant women was not the point. The distinction that this SCHIP regulation drew between the “unborn child” and the pregnant woman can only be understood as part of a larger antiabortion strategy (enthusiastically supported by the Bush administration) to lay the groundwork for establishing a legal basis for “fetal personhood.” The SCHIP measure is akin to the “Unborn Victims of Violence Act” passed by Congress and the “fetal pain” legislation that has been introduced at the federal level and passed in several states. Such legislation requires doctors to offer women getting abortions in the second trimester anesthesia for the fetus, even though an exhaustive review of the literature by respected researchers — one that was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association — concluded that fetuses were incapable of feeling pain until the 29th week of gestation. SCHIP’s privileging of the health needs of the fetus over that of the mother is echoed in the recent Supreme Court decision, Gonzales v Carhart. There, the Court (with the help of Bush’s two appointees) ruled that it was appropriate to override the medical community’s judgment about patient safety and ban a certain procedure “in order to promote respect for … the life of the unborn.” And, most stunning of all, for the first time since Roe v Wade, the Court held that considering the health of a pregnant woman is no longer constitutionally necessary in abortion law. The saga of George Bush’s treatment of SCHIP therefore represents a perfect marriage of two of the main pillars of his presidency: a full throttle opposition to effective government programs, and a relentless promotion of measures favored by his Religious Right base.

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Heat stroke killed woman

August 2, 2007

A Shasta County woman succumbed to heat stroke on the summer’s hottest day to date, Shasta County’s forensic pathologist said Wednesday.

Dr. Susan Comfort said it appears that Marlene Gay Coy, 51, died July 4 at her Round Mountain home. Temperatures that day rose to 113 degrees at the Redding Municipal Airport.

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The announcement comes nearly a month after the Shasta County coroner’s office declined to release any details about the woman other than her age and that she lived in Shasta County.

The secrecy came in spite of a request from the Record Searchlight to reveal the information after county health officials announced the coroner’s office was investigating a possible heatrelated death.

A day earlier, a spokeswoman at the coroner’s office had said there were no reports of anyone dying from the triple-digit temperatures.

Comfort said the decision to wait before releasing the information — which at least one open government advocate has said is legally public — was because it would have been premature to do so until her investigation was complete.

All of the woman’s health problems had to be ruled out before a cause of death was determined, and Comfort said she had to wait weeks for results from a toxicology test to come back.

“That’s the way good medicine works,” Comfort said. “You don’t want somebody to jump to conclusions without ruling out all possibilities.”

Discount Pharmacy - Buy Pharmacy at discount prices including free shipping.Discount Pharmacy provides confortable and easy way to order discount pharmacy online.Coy’s death happened before The Associated Press reported last month that counties and the state’s health department were underreporting the number of heat-related deaths.

The AP’s report found the heat wave that scorched California a year ago may have contributed to the deaths of three times as many people as the state officially reported.

State officials reported that the two-week period of triple-digit temperatures that began July 14,
2006, killed 143 people around the state.

But statistics compiled by the AP from each of California’s 58 counties show the number of deaths last July was 466 higher than the average over the previous six years, a spike many health officials attribute to the record heat, the AP reported.

In Shasta County, the AP tallied 14 more deaths in July 2006 than it averaged the previous five Julys, but the coroner’s office did not report a single heat-related death that month.

The wire service’s investigation found that county forensic pathologists often were reluctant to classify a death as heat related because other factors couldn’t be completely ruled out.

Deaths from heart attacks, strokes and respiratory illnesses can double during extreme temperatures, while deaths from all causes increase, health experts told the AP.

Coroners generally only counted deaths as being heat related when there were obvious connections, such as an elderly or disabled person found dead in a stifling room or farm workers who died in the fields, the AP reported.

There was also little consistency between how each forensic pathologist classified heat related deaths.

Comfort said she had read the report, but she reiterated that it would be medically irresponsible for her to classify a death as heat related if she wasn’t positive.

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LI woman’s health care concerns heard in debate

July 29, 2007

The mother of the Mastic cancer patient whose YouTube video aired during CNN’s Democratic candidates debate yesterday was gratified to see that the ordeal her daughter has endured because she could not afford health insurance is receiving national attention.

“The bottom line is she did this because there is a point to be made,” said Kim Friedrich’s mother, Lory Arem, 60, of Smithtown. “I’m very proud of her.”

Arem called the lack of free or low-cost health care “penny wise and pound foolish” because it costs more to treat her daughter’s breast cancer now than if the tumor had been caught early during a routine checkup.

Friedrich’s video, which begins with Friedrich pulling off her wig before presenting her question, was one of nearly 3,000 submitted.

“My chances for survival aren’t as good as they might be,” Friedrich, 35, said in the video, “because like millions of Americans I’ve gone for years without health insurance that might have allowed me to take preventive medicine. What would you as president do to make free or low-cost preventive medicine available to everybody in this country?”

Her family has been without health care since her husband, Matt, lost his job as a network administrator two years ago. In February, Friedrich - the mother of two daughters, Samantha, 3, and Annika, 7 - found a lump.

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Angry about the state of the country and what she says is politicians’ inability to give straight answers, Friedrich submitted her question. She will appear on CNN for a live discussion on Friday at 8 p.m., Arem said. Before the debate started yesterday, Friedrich said she never intended to reach a national audience.

“I just want to get healthy,” she said.

“It’s not easy coming in front of the entire world and talking about your Alzheimer’s or your breast cancer or your disability,” Sen. Hillary Clinton said in response to the question. “We have to have a sense of national commitment that universal health care is an American value.”

Friedrich, a teller with Suffolk Federal Credit Union, is on Medicaid as she waits for her job’s health benefits to kick in. Her husband is working a temporary job while searching for a full-time position.

Friedrich receives chemotherapy once a month, but the drugs make her so ill that she must take off one week to recover, Arem said. She recently collapsed at work because she took too few days to rest after a treatment, Arem said.

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Planning prior to pregnancy gives babies healthier start in life

July 22, 2007

SORTING THROUGH baby shower gifts can be part of the happy preparations a pregnant woman enjoys while getting ready for the birth of her child.But parents who really want to give their children the best start in life should begin planning long before it’s time to send out shower invitations.

In fact, mothers- and fathers-to-be can take a number of steps in the months before a woman becomes pregnant to make it more likely their babies are born healthy and to reduce the risk of debilitating birth defects or life-threatening conditions.

Couples trying to conceive can participate in a form of health care that obstetricians refer to as “pre-conception planning.” This type of planning, as the name implies, occurs before a baby is conceived and should not be confused with pre-natal planning, which starts once a woman has a confirmed pregnancy.

For some women, pre-conception planning begins with an office visit to an obstetrician-gynecologist where they work together to develop a personalized healthcare plan. For other women, this type of planning involves discussing with their mate how many children they want to have, the spacing between births and the affordability of a family — an important topic since it is now estimated to cost more than $200,000 to raise a child to age 17. Some women might talk with a nurse, social worker or health educator to find answers to their specific questions.

While every individual faces a unique set of issues when

it comes to pregnancy, virtually all prospective parents can benefit from the following general health guidelines that are basic to pre-conception planning:General health steps

- Increase folic acid intake. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 50 to 70 percent of neural tube defects, such as spina bifida, can be prevented if women get adequate amounts of folic acid (at least 400 micrograms per day) before and during pregnancy. Women can take supplements and/or eat foods high in folic acid such as orange juice, green leafy vegetables, beans and whole grain products or fortified breakfast cereals.

- Stop smoking. Fertility difficulties, miscarriages, premature births and low birth weights are among the problems associated with smoking and pregnancy. Men, too, should understand the hazards that smoke can cause their partners, and no one should smoke around a newborn or growing baby.

- Update immunizations. Making sure that a woman’s vaccinations are current for rubella, chicken pox and tetanus, as well Hepatitis B and polio, can prevent birth defects.

- Get tested for HIV and STDs. By screening for HIV and STDs (sexually transmitted diseases) such as herpes and chlamydia, a woman and her doctor can work together to prevent the baby from becoming infected during gestation and at delivery.

- Know your family health history. In addition to following these general health guidelines, women who are considering becoming pregnant should also take inventory of their personal and family health history.

Individual women should inform their doctors about any current medications as well as any previous operations, gynecological problems or pregnancies. Both partners need to find out if their family backgrounds include cystic fibrosis, mental retardation, muscular dystrophy, sickle cell disease, or genetic birth defects.

- Address existing medical conditions. A woman’s health can be at risk if she has diabetes and becomes pregnant. That is why it is important for prospective mothers to work with their doctors to treat and control diabetes, as well as other conditions such as hypertension, epilepsy, cardiovascular disease, lupus or eating disorders.

A visit to the dentist is also called for prior to pregnancy, because a growing body of research suggests that having periodontal disease can contribute to pre-term or low birth weight babies.

- Make healthy choices. A woman who is chronically exhausted and subsisting on junk food is not in as good a position to experience a healthy pregnancy as one who gets adequate rest and eats a nutritious diet with plenty of vegetables, fruit and whole grains. Other health habits a woman can begin prior to pregnancy include reducing or eliminating alcohol consumption and stopping illicit drug use.

Any woman who is experiencing domestic violence should contact a local shelter or crisis hotline to get support, ideally prior to pregnancy, but certainly during it. Some studies show that battering can begin or escalate during a woman’s pregnancy.

When women make healthy lifestyle choices before conception, they stand the best chance of having a positive pregnancy experience.

Quite simply, healthy and happy women have healthier and happier babies.

Dr. Michael McGlynn is an obstetrician-gynecologist and has been delivering babies at Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley for 21 years.

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Hormones: Is age the key?

July 21, 2007

HORMONES seemed like the answer for Nancy Adams when hot flashes began disrupting her sleep seven years ago. The little pill that she got from her doctor solved the night sweat problem and she slept like a baby once again.

All went well — “until,” the L.A. resident says, “the study came out.”

“The” study 58-year-old Adams is talking about was part of the landmark Women’s Health Initiative that tracked 16,608 women and rocked doctors and patients alike in 2002 with the news that women taking estrogen and progestin had a higher risk of heart attacks, strokes and breast cancer than women who didn’t take hormones.

“It terrified me and everybody else,” Adams says.

An estimated 15 million U.S. women were taking hormones at the time, and within a year more than 40% of them, Adams included, quit cold turkey. In Adams’ case, it was only for a while. Her hot flashes faded, but other bothersome symptoms — vaginal dryness and the frequent urge to urinate — cropped up. After dealing with this duo for some months, she opted for the hormones once again.

“I still have concerns about using hormone replacement therapy — the increased risk of heart attacks, stroke, breast cancer, all those things,” she says. “The doctors are still learning about what the effects are, and we are helping them learn. And that is frustrating.”

But for women like Adams — those younger than 60 who have troublesome menopausal symptoms — hormone therapy has recently been given something of a reprieve. A new analysis of the Women’s Health Initiative data suggests that the hormone story is actually two stories — one for women near the age of menopause and one for women age 60 and older who are a decade past that life change.

For older women, the story appears to be written: Hormones aren’t for you.

For younger women who are bothered by menopausal symptoms, the story is more encouraging. Hormones may be a lot kinder to the heart than scientists said back in 2002 when directors of the Women’s Health Initiative announced that the risk of heart attack, stroke and breast cancer was increased in women “irrespective of age.”

Stroke risk is slightly increased for all women on hormones, and breast cancer risk is slightly elevated in women taking estrogen plus progestin. But the risk of heart attack does not, after all, appear raised in younger women — and may even be lower.

Especially in light of these new data, many doctors and scientists think the wide-scale tossing away of hormone pills five years ago was an overreaction and that many who could have been helped suffered needlessly.

Some things haven’t changed. Very few doctors today would suggest women take hormones for anything other than moderate to severe menopausal symptoms — and only for a few years, at that. And there are nuances to the hormone decision based on a woman’s health, family history and personal lifestyle.
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No fountain of youth

Despite the uproar and confusion it caused, the Women’s Health Initiative revealed important facts, experts say. It reversed a popular theory permeating women’s health in the late 1990s that hormones benefited every woman. This so-called “forever young” hypothesis suggested that hormones would stave off heart disease, osteoporosis and dementia and keep women looking and feeling young well into old age.

Instead, the study showed that, except for controlling menopausal symptoms and helping prevent osteoporosis, hormones appear to have few preventive benefits for the average woman in the study.

But that average woman was 63 — far past the age when most women go through menopause.

Because of the age of the women in the group, many scientists and doctors have maintained that the 2002 WHI announcement may have done younger menopausal women — particularly those who suffer severe menopausal symptoms, such as hot flashes, night sweats and vaginal dryness — a disservice. Two recent studies analyzing data of younger women in the Women’s Health Initiative, with an average age of 55, suggests a different risk-benefit profile.

One study, published in April in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., reported that although the risk of heart attacks is increased in those who initiate therapy more than 10 years after menopause, the risk is not increased in women who start hormones less than 10 years after. This analysis of more than 27,000 women combined data from the women in the study who took only estrogen with those who took both estrogen and progestin. It found the risk of stroke was higher for all ages but the risk of death from any cause was lower in women who were 50 to 59 when they started taking hormones, either estrogen alone or estrogen with progestin.

And last month, an analysis published in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that among younger women who’d gone through menopause after having hysterectomies, those who took estrogen alone had much less buildup of calcium plaque in their coronary arteries compared with women who hadn’t taken estrogen. Calcium plaque is a risk factor for heart disease.

The study looked at 1,064 women who were ages 50 to 59 when they started taking estrogen and who took the hormones for an average of five years. Although the study examined only estrogen, some experts say women ages 50 to 59 taking estrogen plus progestin might also see similar benefits. That’s because it is the estrogen that is thought to slow the early stages of plaque buildup in coronary arteries.

But no one knows for sure if younger menopausal women taking estrogen plus progestin might experience this benefit, says Marcia Stefanick, a professor of medicine at Stanford University’s Prevention Research Center who chaired the WHI steering committee.

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