Effect of low-dose long-term hormone replacement therapy on serum lipids in postmenopausal women

Objective: To study the effects of low-dose and long-term hormone replacement therapy(HRT) on blood lipids in postmenopausal women.Methods: A total of 141 postmenopausal female medical staff(aged 50 to 87 years,average 68 years) from Peking Union Medical College Hospital were recruited.Among them,63 received low-dose HRT for 5~31 years were taken as HRT group,and other 78 age-matched postmenopausal women as the control group.Vein blood was taken from the women fasting for 12~14 h and the serum isolated for the determination of serum concentrations of lipid,lipoprotein and apolipoprotein.Data were analyzed with SPSS(statistical) software and the statistical significance was considered to be P0.05.Results: In comparison with the controls,the levels of TG,HDL-C,LDL-C,ApoA,Lp(a) in the women of HRT group had no significant difference,but those of TC,TC/HDL-C,ApoE,ApoCIII and ApoB significantly decreased.Conclusions: The serum levels of TC,LDL-C,ApoB,ApoCIII,ApoE decrease obviously in the(postmenopausal) women receiving low-dose and long-term HRT.The decrease of blood lipid levels may protect cardiovascular system and reduce the risk of cardiovascular events.