Frequently Asked Questions
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- WHAT IS THE WOMEN’S HEALTH INITIATIVE MEMORY STUDY?
- WHAT IS COGNITIVE FUNCTION?
- WHAT IS DEMENTIA?
- WHAT WERE THE MAIN FINDINGS ABOUT ESTROGEN–ALONE AND COGNITION?
- WHAT IS THE INCREASED RISK FOR WOMEN TAKING ESTROGEN-ALONE?
- WHAT TYPE OF HORMONE THERAPY DID WOMEN IN THE ESTROGEN-ALONE STUDY TAKE?
- WHAT IF I AM UNDER AGE 65?
- I’M TAKING HORMONES PRESCRIBED BY MY HEALTH CARE PROVIDER. WHAT SHOULD I DO?
- WHAT SHOULD I TELL MY HEALTH CARE PROVIDER ABOUT THIS NEW INFORMATION?
- WHERE CAN I FIND OUT MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THESE FINDINGS?
1. WHAT IS THE WOMEN’S HEALTH INITIATIVE MEMORY STUDY?
WHIMS is a sub-study within the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI). Some WHI Hormone Program participants who were 65 years or older when they joined WHI also agreed to participate in WHIMS. The purpose of WHIMS was to find out if taking hormones (estrogen-alone or estrogen-plus-progestin) would prevent dementia or lessen any decline of cognitive function (sometimes called “mild cognitive impairment”) in postmenopausal women. In the past, some studies reported that hormone therapy protected cognitive function, while others did not. Because of these different results, it became important to do a large, carefully controlled clinical trial.
2. WHAT IS COGNITIVE FUNCTION?
Cognitive function includes brain related thinking abilities like attention, concentration, memory, language, abstract reasoning, and doing calculations.
3. WHAT IS DEMENTIA?
The diagnosis of dementia is usually made when cognitive function declines to the point that it interferes a great deal with day-to-day activities and no other medical problems can be found. Different brain diseases can cause dementia. The most well known is Alzheimer’s disease. Exactly what causes these diseases and how they progress are not fully understood at this time. However, much research is being done to answer these questions and to decrease dementia’s effects on everyday activities.
4. WHAT WERE THE MAIN FINDINGS ABOUT ESTROGEN–ALONE AND COGNITION?
The overall results of the WHIMS Estrogen-Alone study are similar to what we saw in the WHIMS Estrogen plus Progestin study. When we look at all of the measures of cognitive health – global cognition, mild cognitive impairment, and dementia – we find there is no benefit from taking hormone therapy for women 65 years of age and older. In fact, hormone therapy seems to increase some women’s risk for developing dementia and experiencing declines in global cognition.
5. WHAT IS THE INCREASED RISK FOR WOMEN TAKING ESTROGEN-ALONE?
In the WHIMS Estrogen-Alone study we found that a woman was more likely to develop dementia if she had been taking active estrogen pills. However, the number of women who actually did develop dementia was small–37 out of 10,000 women taking estrogen–alone each year, compared to 25 out of 10,000 women taking placebo each year, or a difference of 12 women. While this difference is important, the number of individual women who were affected was small.
6. WHAT TYPE OF HORMONE THERAPY DID WOMEN IN THE ESTROGEN-ALONE STUDY TAKE?
Women who were assigned at random (by computer) to receive active hormones in this study were taking conjugated equine estrogens 0.625 mg each day (Premarin®). When WHI first began, this was the most commonly prescribed hormone replacement therapy in the United States for postmenopausal women without a uterus.
7. WHAT IF I AM UNDER AGE 65?
The results from WHIMS apply to women 65 years of age and older. Currently, it is not known if these findings apply to women younger than 65 years of age. Additional research is needed to learn more about hormones and cognitive function in women under 65 years.
8. I’M TAKING HORMONES PRESCRIBED BY MY HEALTH CARE PROVIDER. WHAT SHOULD I DO?
• You should contact your personal health care provider to talk about the reasons you have been prescribed menopausal hormones and to discuss your individual risk profile.
• Your health care provider can advise you about your personal use of menopausal hormones, based on current medical guidelines.
9. WHAT SHOULD I TELL MY HEALTH CARE PROVIDER ABOUT THIS NEW INFORMATION?
• We suggest that you share the information you have received with your health care provider.
• WHI staff can also give you a letter to take to your health care provider.
• You can also let your provider know that two scientific papers will be published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in the June 23, 2004, issue. A summary of these papers will be available on the JAMA website at http://jama.ama-assn.org.
10. WHERE CAN I FIND OUT MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THESE FINDINGS?
• Information about these findings is available on the WHIMS participant website at http://www.wfubmc.edu/whims. In addition, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has a special WHI website at http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/whi/.