THURSDAY, Sept. 10, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Hormone therapy started during menopause might reduce a woman’s risk of heart attack and stroke, a new study says.

For common menopause symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats, which affect as many as 80% of women, hormone therapy can offer relief, researchers said in background notes.

But there’s a hidden health benefit that comes along with that relief — a 22% lower risk of heart disease, researchers reported Sept. 8 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

“Benefits were more pronounced in Black women and women who initiated menopause hormone therapy within 10 years of menopause onset,” concluded the research team led by Samar El Khoudary, chair of epidemiology at Virginia Commonwealth University.

However, researchers warned that women shouldn’t start hormone therapy solely to ward off heart problems until more studies are conducted.

“Given the inconsistency of the cardiovascular benefits and the need to consider overall risk-benefit balance, these findings should not be used to support menopause hormone therapy for cardiovascular disease prevention,” researchers wrote.

For the new analysis, researchers analyzed data for more than 2,700 women who reported hot flashes and night sweats as part of a long-term study of menopause. Of those women, more than 750 started hormone therapy to manage their symptoms.

The team followed all the women for two decades, during which 224 fatal and non-fatal cases of heart attack, stroke, heart failure or heart disease occurred, the study says.

Overall, hormone therapy was linked to 22% lower odds of heart problems, researchers found.

“We're talking about timing," said Dr. Stephanie McNally, medical director at Northwell Katz Institute for Women's Health in New York City, who reviewed the findings. "That is everything in the menopausal transition."

The risk was 27% lower among women who started hormone therapy within 10 years of menopause onset compared to those who waited longer, the study found.

“The earlier a woman is put on hormonal therapy, closer to that last period, the more benefits there are to her cardiovascular health,” McNally continued. She was not involved in the research.

Black women benefitted most, with a 49% lower risk of heart problems compared to other women, the study added.

“Vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes and night sweats) are a biomarker for cardiac disease,” McNally said. “For many Black women, there is a higher risk of vasomotor symptoms that last for a longer period of time, a connectivity in terms of their vascular change and that change in estrogen."

In the study, Black women did significantly better when they were placed on hormonal therapy.

"This is important, showing the association with that menopausal transition, hot flashes and heart health,” McNally said.

However, McNally noted that these results won’t apply equally to every woman, and that the types of hormone therapy provided these days are very different from the treatment provided around the time of this study.

“Care needs to be individualized based on risk factors,” McNally said. “This is an observational study, which means that there are nuances to it, and it doesn't apply to every single person.”

More information

Harvard Medical School has more on hormone therapy for menopause symptoms.

SOURCES: JAMA Internal Medicine, Sept. 8, 2026; Dr. Stephanie McNally, medical director, Northwell Katz Institute for Women's Health, New York City