Role of hormone replacement therapy in relieving oral dryness symptoms in postmenopausal women: a case control study.

BACKGROUND: To evaluate the efficacy of hormone replacement therapy in relieving oral symptoms in postmenopausal women presenting with genitourinary symptoms along with oral dryness. METHODS: A case-control study was conducted after selecting 60 postmenopausal women. Oral dryness status of all the patients was evaluated with the help of questionnaire related to oral dryness. These subjects were divided into case group and control group on the basis of response to questionnaire of oral dryness. Unstimulated saliva samples were obtained and analyzed for estimation of salivary estradiol levels by enzyme linked immune sorbent assay technique. After analyzing the result of salivary estradiol levels, case group was subjected to hormone replacement therapy (HRT). The patients were followed up for their response towards oral dryness as well as salivary estradiol levels after the therapy. RESULTS: The mean salivary estradiol level before HRT was significantly more among control group as compared to case group (p value < 0.001). Most of the patients complained of dry mouth (26 out of 30); reduced amount of saliva in the mouth (25 out of 30); dry mouth at night (28 out of 30); dry mouth during the day (25 out of 30) before HRT. These complains were significantly reduced after the therapy. The mean salivary estradiol in the case group levels increased significantly after HRT (p value < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The salivary estradiol levels were reduced in post menopausal women with the complain of xerostomia as compared to those without the complain of xerostomia. Further these levels can be recovered with the help of hormone replacement therapy.

Postmenopausal exogenous hormone therapy and Melanoma risk in women: A systematic review and time-response meta-analysis.

A favourable option to management symptoms during menopausal transition is menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) but relation among MHT and risk of melanoma is controversial. This study aims to identify, analyse and present the evidence surrounding post-menopausal exogenous hormone therapy and the risk for melanoma in women. A systematic searches of database was conducted in PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, and Cochrane without time, region, and language restrictions from inception to April 2020. The DerSimonian and Laird random-effects model was used to estimate combined risk ratio (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Subgroup analysis and time-response analysis was conducted based on the formulation of used hormone and length of hormone therapy. Combined results from fourteen studies that containing 19 arms with 1,164,077 participants which 4273 of them had melanoma cancer showed increase risk of melanoma in the hormone-treated versus control group 1.14 (95% CI 1.05-1.24, I2: 21%). The stronger and significant relationship between MHT and risk of melanoma was in participants who used oestrogen formulation (RR 1.32, 95% CI 1.17-1.49, I2 = 0%). Moreover, a significant non-linear time-response relation between MHT and melanoma was also in initial three years of MHT (Coef1 = 0.2423, p1 < 0.01). This study reveals a significant direct relationship between the MHT and risk of melanoma in postmenopausal women.