ABSTRACT
Premenopausal women have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease than age-matched males. Postmenopausal women exhibit a significant increase in risk, in part, due to aging and, in part, due to the loss of circulating ovarian steroid hormones (for review, see Barrett-Connor, 1997). Increasing evidence from clinical studies, including prospective trials, suggests that exogenous estrogen administered in hormone replacement regimens to postmenopausal women reduces both the risk factors for and the actual risk of cardiovascular disease (The Postmenopausal Estrogen/
* Grant support: NIH HL-50060 and NIH EL-55517.
