Low- and standard-estrogen dosage in oral therapy: dose-dependent effects on insulin and lipid metabolism in healthy postmenopausal women

Abstract

The oral low dose of unopposed estradiol therapy had a favorable effect on glycoinsulinemic metabolism in healthy postmenopausal women; however, the standard dose caused a slight but significant deterioration in insulin sensitivity.

Low-dose estrogen and drospirenone combination: effects on glycoinsulinemic metabolism and other cardiovascular risk factors in healthy postmenopausal women

“…Conversely, the presence of a significant increase of insulin uptake (FHIE) was evidence of greater hepatic involvement. Overall, E 2 /DRSP combination therapy as compared with E 2 -only treatment (per the results of our previous study [7]) seems to have lower…”

“…Our previous work showed that unopposed 1 mg/d E 2 therapy resulted in improvement of peripheral insulin sensitivity and at the same time had no hepatic and pancreatic effect (7). However, the E 2 /DRSP association seem to show minimal changes result in peripheral insulin sensitivity (tested by indexes such as M and HOMA).…”

“…Numerous studies have pointed out the favorable influence of estrogens on endothelial function (7,28,29). In particular, the positive effect of E 2 on FMD seems to be related to the time elapsed since menopause, being lower in late menopause for the progressive decrease of estrogen receptors (30).…”

“…Relatively limited information on glycoinsulinemic metabolism has been reported for healthy postmenopausal women. One study reported minimal changes in carbohydrate metabolism (5), whereas others showed an improvement in insulin sensitivity (6,7).…”

Effects of oral estradiol and levonorgestrel on cardiovascular risk markers in postmenopausal women

“…The unfavorable increase in TG induced by that regimen has been shown to be attenuated by lowering the dose of CE to 0.3 mg, although this is done at the expense of the HDL-C increase [16]. The same trend was shown for unopposed oral mE 2 , which elevates TG and HDL-C when administered at the standard dose (2.0 mg) but does not change either at a low dose (1.0 mg) [17]. Wakatsuki et al [18] showed that transdermal estradiol administration lowers the serum TG level and increases the LDL size, whereas oral CE elevates serum TG and reduces the LDL size, resulting in increased susceptibility of the particles to oxidation.…”