Maturitas 36 (2000) 123–130 Effects of estrogen therapy on well-being in postmenopausal women without vasomotor complaints Constance Skarsga ˚rd a , Go ¨ran E. Berg a , Sara Ekblad a , Ingela Wiklund b,c , Mats L. Hammar a, * a Obstetrics and Gynecology , Department of Health and Enironment , Faculty of Health Sciences, Uniersity Hospital, S -581 85 Linko ¨ping, S weden b A straZ eneca R &D M o ¨lndal, S weden c Department of Public Health and Primary Health Care, Uniersity of Bergen, N orway Received 17 December 1999; accepted 20 June 2000 Abstract Objectie : To establish whether estrogen treatment affects well-being in postmenopausal women without current or previous vasomotor symptoms. Design : Forty postmenopausal women, aged 45–59 years, without current or previous vasomotor complaints, were included. They were randomized to masked treatment with either transdermal 17-estra- diol 50 g/24 h or to placebo. At baseline and after 12 and 14 weeks of treatment, the women completed a questionnaire which reflects well-being, the Psychological General Well-Being (PGWB) Index. Results : The women scored high on the PGWB Index, both at baseline and after 12 and 14 weeks of treatment. There was no significant difference in well-being according to PGWB Index between the groups treated with estrogen and placebo, neither at baseline, nor after therapy. Furthermore, there was no difference in change during therapy between the treatment groups. Conclusion : There is a gradual decline in estrogen during the climacteric, and it is controversial to which extent this affects women’s mental health. The PGWB scores in this study were high before therapy, reflecting that these women without previous or current vasomotor complaints represented a selected sample. Neither short-term estrogen treatment over 12 weeks nor addition with medroxyprogesterone acetate during 2 weeks improved well-being in postmenopausal women without vasomotor symptoms who had high well-being at baseline. © 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Double-blind study; Estrogen therapy; Menopause; Well-being www.elsevier.com/locate/maturitas 1. Introduction Around menopause changes at several levels may affect the mental health, i.e. hormonal and menstrual changes, the occurrence of vasomotor symptoms, and psychological reactions to being *Corresponding author. Tel.: + 46-13-223131; fax: +46- 13-148156. E -mail address: matha@gyn.liu.se (M.L. Hammar). 0378-5122/00/$ - see front matter © 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S0378-5122(00)00141-9