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Low-dose estrogen gel eases menopausal symptoms
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Elestrin, a new estrogen gel that's absorbed through the skin, relieves menopausal symptoms while keeping the hormone dose to a minimum, researchers report.
A number of authorities, Dr. Michael C. Snabes told Reuters Health, have "provided guidelines for physicians to prescribe the lowest possible dose of estrogen to treat menopausal symptoms."
The Elestrin study, he said, "accomplished this with a dose of estradiol that is 50 percent lower than the next lowest dose of estradiol approved for menopausal symptoms." Estradiol is one of the estrogenic hormones produced in the ovaries.
Snabes -- who is with BioSante Pharmaceutics, Inc., the maker of Elestrin -- and colleagues conducted a study involving 484 post-menopausal women who suffered at least 60 hot flashes per week, and report the results in the medical journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.
In random fashion, the participants were given various doses of the estradiol gel or an inactive 'placebo' gel, which they applied daily to a small area of the upper arm for 12 weeks.
After 3 to 5 weeks, the active gel reduced the rate of moderate-to-severe hot flashes by at least seven flashes per day, and significantly reduced the severity of the flashes.
The lowest dose of gel significantly improved most bothersome menopause-related symptoms, and it produced the fewest side effects.
In an accompanying editorial, Dr. Cheryl B. Iglesia of Washington Hospital Center, Washington, DC points out that "longer term follow-up is needed" to assess the effect of the estrogen gel on the risk of heart disease, breast cancer and stroke.
SOURCE: Obstetrics and Gynecology, March 2007.
Reuters Health