To alleviate vaginal dyspareunia or dryness, a painful symptom of menopause that causes sexual dysfunction, Yale researchers have created a topical estrogen that eliminates side effects of conventional estrogen and that in the future could also alleviate some symptoms of aging skin.
"The topical estrogen we've created confines itself to a specific region of the body and helps eliminate the side effects associated with estrogen found in hormone replacement therapies (HRT)," said Richard B. Hochberg, M.D., professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Yale School of Medicine and lead investigator on the study.
Scheduled for publication in the June issue of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, the study showed that the newly-created estrogen does not act systemically and does not stimulate the growth of the uterus in female rats, making it much less likely to cause the common side effects associated with HRT, according to Hochberg.
HRT has long been prescribed to relieve menopausal symptoms like hot flashes, heart disease, bone loss associated with osteoporosis and vaginal dryness, which affects about 40 percent of women within 10 years of the onset of menopause. But fear of side effects such as breast and edometrial cancer and stroke cause many women to steer clear of HRT.
Hochberg said the risks associated with HRT outweigh the benefits for many women. "The risks of side effects are small, but they are real," he said. "Although they happen in only a small percentage of women, because these side effects involve cancer and stroke, a general fear of HRT exists."
There are topical estrogen creams now available on the market to treat vaginal dryness that are given intravaginally, but these
estrogens are absorbed in the vaginal walls and enter the blood, resulting in significant blood levels of estrogen. "The cream
we've developed contains a powerful but local estrogen that metabolizes quickly in the tissues and the blood stre
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Contact: Karen N. Peart
karen.peart@yale.edu
203-432-1326
Yale University
9-May-2001