Oral, transdermal hormone therapies equally preserve bone health in premature ovarian insufficiency

Hormone therapy, whether administered orally or applied transdermally, helps maintain bone mineral density in women with premature ovarian insufficiency, according to a single-centre retrospective study.

The study included a total of 55 women (median age 34 years) with spontaneous premature ovarian insufficiency who underwent routine monitoring at the Clinical Division of Gynecological Endocrinology and Reproductive Medicine of the Medical University of Vienna. These women received either oral or transdermal oestrogen therapy.

Researchers calculated the T-scores of the femur and hip, as evaluated using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry scans.

More than half of the women (65.5 percent) had reduced bone mineral density based on the dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry scan results. Of these women, 49.1 percent had osteopenia and 16.4 percent had osteoporosis.

A total of 27 women were treated with transdermal estradiol (49.1 percent), while 28 received oral estradiol (50.9 percent). The T-scores of the femur and the hip at baseline did not significantly differ between the two treatment groups (p=0.586 and p=0.400, respectively). The same was true for the T-scores of the femur and the hip at the follow-up assessment (p=0.618 and p=0.471, respectively).

The findings show that either oral or transdermal estradiol is a suitable treatment choice for women with premature ovarian insufficiency, the researchers said.