HEALTH REPORT - Hormone Replacement Therapy Linked to Blood

HEALTH REPORT - Hormone¹ Replacement² Therapy Linked to Blood Clots⁴
By Cynthia Kirk

Broadcast: Wednesday, October 13, 2004

This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report.

American researchers report more risks for older women who take the hormone replacement drugs estrogen and progestin. The researchers found that some women who take the hormones⁵ are at sharply higher risk for developing blockages⁶ in blood vessels⁷ in the legs and lungs.

Hormone replacement drugs are designed to help ease problems among older women during menopause. This is when a woman's body produces less of the hormones estrogen and progesterone. Lower hormone levels in menopause cause some women to feel hot, experience mood changes, and suffer bone loss. To help with these problems, some women have been taking estrogen or estrogen with progestin.

Earlier studies had suggested an increased risk of blood clots among women who took the hormones. But researchers did not know until now that some groups of women are at even greater risk.

Researchers studied sixteen thousand women between the ages of fifty and seventy-nine years old. They found that the risk of blood clots for women who had taken the hormones was two times higher than for those who had not. The research showed that women over the age of seventy who took the hormones had more than seven times the risk. And the researchers found that being overweight also raises the danger of a blood clot³ among women who took the hormones.

Normally, taking aspirin⁸ reduces the risk of blood clots by thinning the blood. But researchers found that aspirin did not help the women who were also taking the hormones.

The latest findings come from a fifteen-year government study called the Women's Health Initiative.

For many years, health experts thought that the hormone drugs could help prevent heart disease, cancer and possibly mental illness in women. But many women stopped taking the drugs two years ago after a government study found that the hormones raised the risk of heart disease and some cancers.

Experts say taking estrogen and progestin does reduce the risk of the bone loss disease, osteoporosis. The drugs have also been shown to lower the risk for colon⁹ cancer. However, American health officials advise women to take the smallest amount of hormones needed for the shortest possible time.

This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. This is Gwen Outen.

1 hormone   

n.荷尔蒙，激素，内分泌

参考例句：

• Hormone implants are used as growth boosters.激素植入物被用作生长辅助剂。
• This hormone interacts closely with other hormones in the body.这种荷尔蒙与体內其他荷尔蒙紧密地相互作用。

2 replacement   

n.取代，替换，交换；替代品，代用品

参考例句：

• We are hard put to find a replacement for our assistant.我们很难找到一个人来代替我们的助手。
• They put all the students through the replacement examination.他们让所有的学生参加分班考试。

3 clot   

n.凝块；v.使凝成块

参考例句：

• Platelets are one of the components required to make blood clot.血小板是血液凝固的必须成分之一。
• The patient's blood refused to clot.病人的血液无法凝结。

4 clots   

n.凝块( clot的名词复数 )；血块；蠢人；傻瓜v.凝固( clot的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• When you cut yourself, blood clots and forms a scab. 你割破了，血会凝固、结痂。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Milk clots when it turns sour. 奶变酸就凝块。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

5 hormones   

n. 荷尔蒙，激素 名词hormone的复数形式

参考例句：

• This hormone interacts closely with other hormones in the body. 这种荷尔蒙与体內其他荷尔蒙紧密地相互作用。
• The adrenals produce a large per cent of a man's sex hormones. 肾上腺分泌人体的大部分性激素。

6 blockages   

n.堵塞物( blockage的名词复数 )；堵塞，阻塞

参考例句：

• The storms could increase the risks posed by river blockages. 暴风雨会增加因河道堵塞所造成的危险。 来自互联网
• An angiogram shows the location and severity of blockages in blood vessels. 冠状动脉造影能够显示血管内的阻塞位置以及阻塞的严重程度。 来自互联网

7 vessels   

n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人

参考例句：

• The river is navigable by vessels of up to 90 tons. 90 吨以下的船只可以从这条河通过。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• All modern vessels of any size are fitted with radar installations. 所有现代化船只都有雷达装置。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

8 aspirin   

n.阿司匹林

参考例句：

• The aspirin seems to quiet the headache.阿司匹林似乎使头痛减轻了。
• She went into a chemist's and bought some aspirin.她进了一家药店，买了些阿司匹林。

9 colon   

n.冒号，结肠，直肠

参考例句：

• Here,too,the colon must be followed by a dash.这里也是一样，应当在冒号后加破折号。
• The colon is the locus of a large concentration of bacteria.结肠是大浓度的细菌所在地。