Hormone Therapy News

LAS VEGAS — Hormone therapy in transgender men and women increased CV risk, according to a presentation at the National Lipid Association Scientific Sessions.

Healthy women using hormonal contraception were more likely to have higher levels of total 25-hydroxyvitamin D vs. women not using hormonal contraception, although levels of free 25-(OH)D were similar between the groups, according to findings from a post hoc analysis of a randomized controlled trial.

NEW ORLEANS — When treating transgender patients, primary care physicians must foster an affirming environment and shift their focus from gender-based care to anatomy-based care, according to a presentation at the ACP Internal Medicine Meeting.

The use of estrogen following preventive oophorectomy did not appear to increase the risk for breast cancer among women carrying a BRCA1 mutation, according to findings published in JAMA Oncology.

Known as the “cuddle hormone” and “love hormone,” oxytocin is associated with warm feelings and social bonds. Indeed, oxytocin plays a key role in establishing one of the most primal and important relationships: that between mother and child. The hormone is involved in the progression of labor, the nurturing act of breast-feeding and the focusing of maternal attention on an infant. “Oxytocin is released within the brain at the same time a woman is giving birth, at the same time she is nursing, and it transforms her brain so that baby becomes the most special thing in the environment,” Larry J. Young, PhD, professor of psychiatry, director of the Center for Translational Social Neuroscience and director of the Silvio O. Conte Center for Oxytocin and Social Cognition at Emory University, told Endocrine Today. “It increases the salience of that baby’s cues. That’s the quintessential role, the original role, of oxytocin that happens in all mammals: focusing the attention of the brain on social cues.”

In women with primary ovarian insufficiency, the risk for cardiovascular disease decreased with prolonged exposure to estrogen and increased with estrogen deprivation, according to findings published in Fertility & Sterility.

Postmenopausal women currently using hormone therapy had less visceral adipose tissue compared with those who never used HT, and this use prevented 10-year gains of visceral adipose tissue and android fat mass, study data show.

Transgender men treated with testosterone therapy did not experience increases in estradiol levels after 6 years of follow-up, but BMI decreased with increasing testosterone levels, according to findings published in Endocrine Practice.

Reproductive and hormonal factors, such as pregnancy, increasing number of offspring and hormone replacement therapy use, are associated with increased knee osteoarthritis risk, according to findings published in Arthritis and Rheumatology.

Taking menopausal hormone therapy shortly after menopause begins can help maintain the brain’s thinking and memory skills and reduce memory loss, according to research published in Neurology.