Hormone therapy tied to less biological aging in postmenopausal women

Postmenopausal women who use hormone therapy (HT) are biologically younger than those not receiving HT, according to a study published online Aug. 29 in JAMA Network Open.

Yufan Liu and Chenglong Li, Ph.D., from Peking University in Beijing, evaluated the association between HT use and discrepancies between chronological and biological age in postmenopausal women, as well as the impact of socioeconomic status (SES). The analysis included data from 117,763 postmenopausal women participating in the U.K. Biobank, of whom 40.3 percent ever used HT.

The researchers found that ever use of HT was associated with a smaller biological aging discrepancy versus never use of HT (β, −0.17 years). This effect was more evident in those who started HT at 55 years of age or older (β, −0.32 years) and in those who used HT for four to eight years (β, −0.25 years). Additionally, the association between HT and a smaller aging discrepancy was stronger in women with low SES, with a significant interaction observed for education (higher education: β, −0.08 years; other education: β, −0.23). For the association between HT and all-cause mortality and cause-specific mortality, phenotypic aging discrepancy mediated 12.7 percent of the effect.

“Promoting HT in postmenopausal women could be important for healthy aging,” the authors write.

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