Background: Estrogen therapy has an antioxidant effect and improves quality of life. There is no report on estrogen therapy and quality of life in relation to oxidative stress.
Objective: To determine the effect of estrogen hormonal therapy on quality of life and oxidative stress in postmenopausal women.
Patients and methods: We carried out a controlled clinical trial including 111 perimenopausal women (40 to 60 years old) living in Mexico City. Women were assigned into three groups: (1) control group, 39 premenopausal women; (2) 33 postmenopausal women receiving oral conjugated estrogens and medroxyprogesterone (0.625 mg/d plus medroxyprogesterone 5 mg/d for 10 days); (3) 33 postmenopausal women taking placebo pills. We measured at baseline and at six months biochemical markers of oxidative stress: lipoperoxides by TBARS assay, erythrocyte superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and total antioxidant status (TAS) with Randox Laboratories, Ltd. kits. We also applied the World Health Organization Quality of Life, Brief (WHOQoL-Brief).
Results: Levels of lipoperoxides were higher in postmenopausal women with low quality of life vs. premenopausal women with high quality of life (0.357 +/- 0.06 vs0.315 +/- 0.04 micromol/L, p <0.05). Plasma lipoperoxides diminished in women taking hormonal therapy with low quality of life after six months of treatment (0.357 +/- 0.06 vs. 0.293 +/- 0.08 micromol/L, p < 0.01); also, the proportion of women in therapy with basal high lipoperoxides and quality of life average-low diminished (p < 0.05). There were no differences in the other groups.
Conclusion: Estrogen therapy improves quality of life and reduces lipoperoxides as oxidative stress biomarker in postmenopausal women.