THS: progestin accelerate hearing loss related to age

Women receiving hormone replacement therapy (HRT) have a hearing loss of 10 to 30 decibels, according to a study published online in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ."
It seems that the hearing loss associated with age is accelerated in women whose HRT includes progestin compared with those whose treatment has only an estrogen or those who do not use HRT , says Robert D. Frisina .

Hearing these women is comparable to that of women with five to ten more years, says the researcher is part of a research group on hearing the most advanced , the International Agency for Research hearing and language ( ICHSR ) . The center brings together researchers from University Medical Center in Rochester and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology .

These results , from a study involving 124 postmenopausal women aged 60-86 years participating in a larger research project on hearing loss related to age , confirm those of a smaller study by the same team at an annual conference of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology . They go even further by designating progestin HRT as the compound responsible for the hearing impaired .

"In light of these results , we believe that hearing loss should be added to the list of side effects associated with HRT . Women who already have a hearing problem should especially consider this issue carefully. And those on HRT should consider conducting a thorough review of their hearing every six months, " recommend the authors of the study .

According to tests carried out by the latter, only a few major medical centers are authorized to practice , women whose HRT contained progestin had problems both in the inner ear and in the area of brain requested for the hearing.

The results also show , to the surprise of researchers, that estrogens do not improve hearing. " It was long believed that estrogen was good for nerve cells , and so we wanted to see if estrogen in women in their HRT had better hearing than women who did not follow this treatment ," said Dr. Frisina . " We were very surprised to discover that not only women on estrogen did not hear better than others , but also those under progestin actually heard worse ."

The team continues to work to try to determine the exact particular of progestin on the inner ear and brain effects. These effects are likely to affect , but to a lesser degree , all women, since progesterone is a hormone naturally produced by the female body . Researchers have also shown a slight hearing loss at the end of the cycle when progesterone levels are high.

The team also plans to follow women who stopped HRT , to see if the hearing loss is reversible. Women on the pill progestin should also be studied .