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Hormone replacement therapy actually increases the risk of heart disease rather than decreases it. Many women are surprised to find that they're several times more likely to die of a heart attack or stroke than breast cancer. They think they're protected but what really happens is that women get their heart disease about ten years after men, and when they do, it's often worse. It used to be thought oestrogen gave females those extra years before the chest pain kicked in but that theory's been knocked on the head. It turns out hormone replacement therapy actually increases the risk of heart disease rather than decreases it. And the role of a woman's own natural oestrogen before the menopause is also being questioned. Menopause doesn't actually make any difference to women's heart disease. The rates of heart disease go up steadily with age and there's no blip upwards when the on-board oestrogen blips down. A study comparing Japanese and British women recently confirmed that, and also showed that women's heart disease rates keep going up while men's fall as they go into old age (probably because blokes who are going to cark it already have.) The inescapable issues in women - just as in men - are smoking, cholesterol, exercise, diabetes and blood pressure.
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