A new meta-analysis of 17 different randomized controlled trials suggests that hormone therapy can significantly reduce insulin resistance.
Menopausal women are at increased risk for insulin resistance as a result of declining estrogen levels.
Previous studies evaluating the possible benefits of hormone therapy on insulin resistance have produced mixed results.
In the new study, Dr. Xuezhi (Daniel) Jiang, a senior investigator at Reading Hospital Tower Health and Drexel University College of Medicine in Pennsylvania, US, said their analysis showed that both types of hormone therapy, including oral and transdermal routes, significantly reduced insulin resistance in healthy postmenopausal women, although estrogen alone was associated with a more prominent reduction compared with combined hormone therapy.
Several studies have been conducted in the past to try to determine the possible positive effect of hormone therapy on insulin resistance, but the results have been inconsistent.
But in this new meta-analysis, hormone therapy was found to significantly reduce insulin resistance in healthy postmenopausal women without metabolic diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease.
“Hormone therapy is an effective treatment for many bothersome symptoms of menopause, including hot flashes,” said Dr. Stephanie Faubion, medical director of The Menopause Society.
This new meta-analysis is important because declining estrogen levels in menopausal women put them at increased risk for insulin resistance, and hormone therapy may be beneficial in reducing insulin resistance in these women, Faubion said.
Insulin resistance can occur in men or women, but menopausal women are at higher risk because as estrogen levels decline during the menopausal transition, the body may become less sensitive to insulin.
A diagnosis of insulin resistance is considered serious because it can be a precursor to prediabetes, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic disorders.
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