POSTMENOPAUSAL ESTROGEN AND PROGESTIN USE AND THE RISK OF CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE

We examined the relation between car-diovascular disease and postmenopausal hormone therapy during up to 16 years of follow-up in 59,337 women from the Nurses’ Health Study, who were 30 to 55 years of age at base line. Information on hor-mone use was ascertained with biennial question-naires. From 1976 to 1992, we documented 770 cas-es of myocardial infarction or death from coronary disease in this group and 572 strokes. Proportional-hazards models were used to calculate relative risks and 95 percent confidence intervals, adjusted for confounding variables.