Tissue-Specific Estrogens — The Promise for the Future

As life expectancy continues to increase, women will soon be postmenopausal for one third of their lives. The human and economic costs of this increased longevity in an estrogen-deficient state are substantial. They include a projected increase in cardiovascular events, the leading cause of death among postmenopausal women, and in osteoporotic hip fractures, which are associated with a 20 percent mortality rate within the first year. However, despite the well-established efficacy of estrogens in protecting women against cardiovascular disease and maintaining bone density and reducing fractures, less than one fifth of postmenopausal women ever take them.1 Furthermore, the proportion who . . .