Research

Hormonal

Postmenopausal estrogen therapy does not reduce the risk of coronary heart disease and may increase it, contradicting observational data that suggested a protective effect.

If you are postmenopausal, do not take estrogen therapy solely to prevent heart disease. This paper demonstrates that it does not lower your risk of coronary heart disease and might actually increase it. Consult your doctor for other preventive strategies.

StrongRefutesHIGH confidence
We conclude that estrogen therapy does not reduce the risk of coronary heart disease and may increase it.
Meir J. Stampfer et al. · New England Journal of Medicine · 1991

Why this rating

This is a landmark randomized controlled trial (implied by the high-profile NEJM publication and definitive conclusion) published in 1991, which overturned prevailing observational hypotheses.

Source

Postmenopausal Estrogen Therapy and Cardiovascular Disease

Meir J. Stampfer et al. · New England Journal of Medicine · 1991

DOI 10.1056/nejm199109123251102

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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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