THURSDAY, Dec. 21, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- For perimenopausal women, receipt of hormone therapy (HT) is associated with an increased risk for venous thromboembolism (VTE), with a lower risk for those taking versus not taking statin therapy, according to a study published online Dec. 15 in JAMA Network Open.
John W. Davis, from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, and colleagues conducted a nested case-control study including data from a commercially insured U.S. claims database to estimate the risk for VTE in women aged 50 to 64 years taking HT with or without statins. The total sample included 20,359 cases identified with VTE diagnoses and 203,590 matched controls.
Of the entire sample, 8.73 and 16.18 percent had recent HT exposure and current statin exposure, respectively. The researchers found that individuals with any recent HT exposure had increased odds of VTE versus those with no recent HT exposure in adjusted models (odds ratio, 1.51). The odds of VTE were lower for individuals receiving current statin therapy versus those with no current statin exposure (odds ratio, 0.88). The odds of VTE were increased for those taking HT without statins and for those taking HT with statins but were lower for those taking statins without HT compared with those not recently taking HT or statins. The odds of VTE were lower for individuals taking HT with versus without statins (odds ratio, 0.82), and the risk reduction was greater with higher-intensity statins.
"These findings suggest that statins may improve the HT risk-benefit profile for women with perimenopausal symptoms," the authors write.
One author disclosed ties to industry.
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