HT associated with increased risk for cataract in postmenopausal women

Postmenopausal women undergoing long-term hormone therapy may have an elevated risk for cataract, according to a large Swedish study.

Further, women on HT who consumed more than one alcoholic beverage per day were at increased risk.

The prospective cohort study included 30,861 women aged 49 to 83 years who completed a questionnaire about lifestyle, hormone status and HT use. The study identified 4,324 women who underwent cataract surgery during a 98-month follow-up period.

Women who had ever used HT had a 14% higher risk for cataract when compared with women who had never used HT. Current users had an 18% higher risk for cataract when compared with those who never used HT.

Among those who consumed alcohol, current HT users had a 29% higher risk for cataract extraction when compared with women who did not use HT. Current HT users who consumed more than one alcoholic beverage daily had a 42% higher risk.

Further, current HT users who smoked had a 29% higher risk for cataract vs. those who neither used HT nor smoked. Current users who never smoked had a 26% higher risk when compared with women who never used HT nor smoked. Women who currently used HT and alcohol and were smokers were at a 38% higher risk of cataract.

Naturally secreted estrogen appears to protect the eye from cataract, but estrogen from outside sources in the form of HT “is not to be regarded as a physiological substitution and could have other effects on the lens,” according to the researchers.

“If other studies confirm this association, an increased rate of cataract extraction should be added to the list of potential negative outcomes associated with [HT].”

Lindblad BE. Ophthalmology. 2010;117:424-430.