RESEARCH - Low estrogen levels linked to knee arthritis

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Low estrogen levels linked to knee arthritis

8/25/2006

By: Reuters Health

NEW YORK (Reuters Health), Aug 25 - In middle-aged women, low levels of

estrogen are associated with the development of knee osteoarthritis,

researchers report.

" This opens up a new area of investigation that can examine the role and

contribution of naturally occurring hormones in the development of

osteoarthritis, " lead investigator Dr. Fran R. Sowers told Reuters

Health.

However, she stressed that this does not mean that doctors " should now

prescribe hormone therapy " for their patients with arthritis.

Sowers, at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and her colleagues note in

the medical journal Arthritis and Rheumatism that sex differences in the

prevalence of osteoarthritis suggest that sex hormones, or alterations in

these hormones associated with menopause, may contribute to the development

of arthritis.

To investigate further, the researchers studied 842 white and

African-American women. Close to 75% of the women were premenopausal. At the

start of the study in the mid-1990s, 11 percent of them had osteoarthritis,

and each year 3.2% more developed the condition.

Estrogen levels in the blood of women who developed knee osteoarthritis was

about 15% lower than in those without arthritis. This difference wasn't

significant from a statistical standpoint, but the affected women did have

significantly lower of levels of estrogen breakdown products in their urine.

Moreover, women who developed knee osteoarthritis had significantly greater

odds of having the lowest levels of estrogen during the early phase of their

menstrual cycle.

The findings do not mean that estrogen treatment is warranted to prevent

osteoarthritis, but they might lead researchers to more effective

treatments.

By

Last Updated: 2006-08-25 9:22:19 -0400 (Reuters Health)

SOURCE: Arthritis and Rheumatism, August 2006.

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