Skip to main content
PMC home page
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health logoLink to Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
. 1987 Mar;41(1):26–29. doi: 10.1136/jech.41.1.26

Relation between cigarette smoking and use of hormonal replacement therapy for menopausal symptoms.

G Greenberg 1, S G Thompson 1, T W Meade 1
PMCID: PMC1052572  PMID: 3668456

Abstract

The aim of this study was to characterise new users of hormonal replacement therapy (HRT) for the relief of menopausal symptoms and to compare these women with never-users of HRT; 402 new users and 804 never-users were studied. Hot flushes were the most common symptom in both users and non-users and were the most frequent reason for prescribing HRT. The prevalence of menopausal symptoms in non-users of HRT was high although substantially lower than that in users. HRT users were more likely to be current cigarette smokers than were never-users. There was also, within smokers, a significant relation between the number of cigarettes smoked and the likelihood of using HRT. This relation between HRT use and smoking could result from an anti-oestrogen effect of smoking, intensifying menopausal symptoms. Of potential clinical relevance is the suggestion that a proportion of women using HRT may be doing so in order to alleviate smoking-induced symptoms. Users of HRT were also more likely to have used oral contraceptives than were never-users; this relation was probably behavioural.

Full text

PDF
27

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Adena M. A., Gallagher H. G. Cigarette smoking and the age at menopause. Ann Hum Biol. 1982 Mar-Apr;9(2):121–130. doi: 10.1080/03014468200005591. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Baron J. A. Smoking and estrogen-related disease. Am J Epidemiol. 1984 Jan;119(1):9–22. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a113730. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Breslow N. E., Day N. E., Halvorsen K. T., Prentice R. L., Sabai C. Estimation of multiple relative risk functions in matched case-control studies. Am J Epidemiol. 1978 Oct;108(4):299–307. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a112623. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Bush T. L., Cowan L. D., Barrett-Connor E., Criqui M. H., Karon J. M., Wallace R. B., Tyroler H. A., Rifkind B. M. Estrogen use and all-cause mortality. Preliminary results from the Lipid Research Clinics Program Follow-Up Study. JAMA. 1983 Feb 18;249(7):903–906. doi: 10.1001/jama.249.7.903. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Daniell H. W. Osteoporosis of the slender smoker. Vertebral compression fractures and loss of metacarpal cortex in relation to postmenopausal cigarette smoking and lack of obesity. Arch Intern Med. 1976 Mar;136(3):298–304. doi: 10.1001/archinte.136.3.298. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Jensen J., Christiansen C., Rødbro P. Cigarette smoking, serum estrogens, and bone loss during hormone-replacement therapy early after menopause. N Engl J Med. 1985 Oct 17;313(16):973–975. doi: 10.1056/NEJM198510173131602. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Jick H., Dinan B., Rothman K. J. Noncontraceptive estrogens and nonfatal myocardial infarction. JAMA. 1978 Apr 3;239(14):1407–1409. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Kirschner M. A., Ertel N., Schneider G. Obesity, hormones, and cancer. Cancer Res. 1981 Sep;41(9 Pt 2):3711–3717. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Petitti D. B., Wingerd J., Pellegrin F., Ramcharan S. Risk of vascular disease in women. Smoking, oral contraceptives, noncontraceptive estrogens, and other factors. JAMA. 1979 Sep 14;242(11):1150–1154. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Pfeffer R. I., Whipple G. H., Kurosaki T. T., Chapman J. M. Coronary risk and estrogen use in postmenopausal women. Am J Epidemiol. 1978 Jun;107(6):479–497. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a112567. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Rosenberg L., Armstrong B., Jick H. Myocardial infarction and estrogen therapy in post-menopausal women. N Engl J Med. 1976 Jun 3;294(23):1256–1259. doi: 10.1056/NEJM197606032942302. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Rosenberg L., Slone D., Shapiro S., Kaufman D., Stolley P. D., Miettinen O. S. Noncontraceptive estrogens and myocardial infarction in young women. JAMA. 1980 Jul 25;244(4):339–342. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Ross R. K., Paganini-Hill A., Mack T. M., Arthur M., Henderson B. E. Menopausal oestrogen therapy and protection from death from ischaemic heart disease. Lancet. 1981 Apr 18;1(8225):858–860. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(81)92138-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES