Replacing the replacements

A Wake Forest team has developed a cell-based hormone replacement therapy that can control the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis with lower levels of estrogen than standard therapies, and could provide a solution to the side effects of standard HRTs.

The decline in ovarian hormones during menopause leads to osteoporosis, fat accumulation and uterine wall thickening, among other complications, but hormone replacement therapies (HRTs) consisting of estrogen, or estrogen and progesterone, don’t replace all of hormones lost, and contribute to the problems. One such hormone is inhibin, which normally suppresses pituitary production of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH). In its absence, FSH levels spike and contribute to loss of bone density and increased adiposity...