MedWire News: Postmenopausal women who take oestrogen hormone replacement therapy may face an increased risk of gastric? reflux symptoms, study results suggest.

However, the team found no evidence to suggest an increased risk of reflux symptoms among women taking combined oestrogen and progestin hormone therapy.

Dr Zongli Zheng, from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, and colleagues studied data on 10,739 postmenopausal women with a hysterectomy who were assigned to receive oestrogen alone or a dummy treatment, and 16,608 without a hysterectomy who were assigned to oestrogen plus progestin or a dummy treatment.

One year later, the team found that women who took oestrogen-only hormone therapy were around 25% more likely to experience reflux symptoms than those taking the dummy treatment.

In contrast, women taking oestrogen plus progestin hormone therapy were no more likely to experience reflux symptoms than their counterparts taking the dummy treatment.

However, neither of the two types of hormone replacement therapy affected the severity of reflux symptoms in women who already suffered from such symptoms at the start of the study.

In line with previous studies, the researchers also found that weight gain was associated with an increased risk of reflux symptoms among the participants, and weight-loss reduced the risk of these symptoms.

Writing in the journal Gastroenterology, Dr Zheng and team conclude: "Oestrogen therapy may modestly increase the incidence of gastro-oesophageal reflux."

They add: "Weight control is an effective method (or treatment) for preventing of gastro-oesophageal reflux and for improving existing symptoms."