JGH researchers find hormone replacement patches safer than pills in terms of stroke risk

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) skin patches containing low doses of estrogen carry less risk of stroke than oral therapy and may represent a safer alternative to tablets, suggests a study conducted by researchers at the Lady Davis Research Institute of the Jewish General Hospital. Their study was published June 4 in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

The study was led by Dr. Samy Suissa, head of the Centre for Clinical Epidemiology at the Lady Davis Institute, with colleagues from the Centre and Germany. Suissa and his team found that low-dose patches have 26 percent less risk than oral forms of HRT, they said, though the risk with patches is elevated with higher doses.

Read the complete McGill press release.