Estrogen’s effect on cardiovascular risk: a integrative review

Abstract

Objective: Analyze the scientific literature on the relation of estrogen on cardiovascular risk. Methods: This integrative review used platforms such as PubMed, SciELO, Lilacs and Clinical Trials, to find relevant sources to develop this project. Health Sciences Descriptors like “cardiovascular risk”, “cardiology”, “cardiology risk”, “estrogen”, “estrogen replacement”, “menopause”, “primary health care”, and “hypertension” in association with boolean operators were used to search in these scientific platforms, resulting in 2653 articles. Within this number, due to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, only 20 of them became official sources. Results: Studies showed that estrogen has a main role on the regulation of vascular tone, preventing vascular remodeling, therefore, lowering the cardiovascular risk. Also, estrogen deficiency contributes to hypertension during menopause due to the reduced circulating vasodilator ovarian hormone, which causes the circulatory system to collapse along with the formation of atherosclerotic plaques. On the other hand, randomized clinical trials showed us that hormonal replacement during menopause increases the chance of thrombotic events. Final considerations: Estrogen works as a protective factor on cardiovascular risk, however, it’s very important to consider other risk elements, like presence of comorbidities, types of estrogen replacement, and drug administration route, to define the patient’s approach.