HRT Safety

Thank you for posting this. This reflects my experience discussing HRT with doctors since I was 55 years old. I'm now 75 and I've found that most haven't reconsidered their stance since the WHI study and are often unwilling to engage in the conversation. It sometimes feels like once you pass 55, you're relegated to a kind of custodial health care, where there's little interest in what treatments may actually benefit an older patient. Sorry for the negative tone. I am so glad I lived to see the article you posted.

@vkmov,
I share your situation and thought. Thanks for giving it expression.

Excellent video on HRT and how it can be used by postmenopausal women without heart or breast conditions:

A CAC coronary heart test is not done with a contrast dye. Would this test be helpful in your situation? The CTA test is with contrast dye.

What is a CAC test, @kisu? Thank you!

Hi windy, I had a cac done and it's called "ct heart w qualitative eval of coronary calcium" in my patient portal. Basically it gives me a calcium score of my coronary arteries, and mine showed a score of 38 at my lad, the main of the 3 coronary arteries. My cardiologist didn't really want to do this test because they'd already seen the mild calcification from my chest ct but I insisted and wanted to know my score. It is said that if one is on statin treatment, the score could be artificially raised a little bit.

Your cardiologist probably is thinking about a CTA (CT coronary angiogram) test for you, which needs a contrast. This is the more accurate yet non-invasive way to know whether or not one or more coronary arteries are diseased due to any soft or hardened plaques. Sometimes a person could have a 0 cac score but could have many soft plaques resulting more than 70% of blockage, which usually starts to give symptoms. So CTA is better at evaluating any blockage of coronary arteries due to soft AND hard plaques.

Thanks @mayblin. This, for me, is an example of a poor risk/benefit balance! My afib with heart rate 190+ happens very infrequently (every 1-2 years) and when cardiologist asked if I had left arm pain, I said I seemed to remember one time. But I have left side pain a lot. I have no risk factors for narrowed arteries: I can walk 10 miles and go up and down stairs without being short of breath. No angina. Low blood pressure etc.

The pain in spine (fractures, scoliosis, stenosis) from the treadmill was not worth it to me. I really liked this doctor and appreciate caution, but I am just going to try to let this request vanish in the minutiae of medical details at a large hospital practice if possible. I am also going to enlist the opinions of endo, ortho, neuro, nephrologist on stress tests as I told cardio I would.

@lynn59 I believe the test I will have is a Coronary Artery Calcium Score test. This was offered as an optional additional test to check for plaque buildup. I have no history of heart problems either. The ND was very happy with my BP, weight, LDL cholesterol and A1c results and asked about mammograms which I had done the following day and was fine. She did say there was a slight increased risk of dementia in my age category, but Dr. Osieki on OsteoBoston video never mentioned this. I feel safe regarding coronary/clot risks with the transdermal patch reinforced after viewing Dr. Osieki's presentation.

@windyshores, Thank you for correcting this misinformation! I was so disappointed to read he had retired.

@debbie1956 just to be clear for others: McCormick has NOT retired for osteoporosis care.