Most US women face stroke risk

Estrogen may give women an edge in resisting heart disease that can be caused in part by air pollution, a new West Virginia University study found.Researchers determined that males and post-menopuasal females are more likely to suffer damaged arteries linked to diesel exhaust than women of childbearing age.That coincides with a national study released this year showing older women are at significantly higher risk for heart problems caused by air pollution than other people.

Men can also experience hot flashes like menopausal women-if they undergo chemical castration.New findings have verified a way to detect hot flashes.This could help develop treatments against these uncomfortable events in patients who endure chemical castration for medical reasons.Chemical castration involves hormonal drugs that suppress testosterone and therefore the male sex drive.The procedure is employed as a punishment for male sex offenders in some American states and also performed on prostate cancer patients to help deplete testosterone and thus slow the disease.

Research on two continents signaled more bad news for menopause hormones,offering the strongest evidence yet that they can raise the risk of breast cancer and are tied to a slightly higher risk of ovarian cancer.New US government numbers showed that breast cancer rates levelled off in 2004 after plunging in 2003-the year after millions of women stopped taking hormones because a big study tied them to higher stroke and breast cancer risks.Experts said the levelling off shows that the 2003 drop in the cancer rate was real and not a fluke.The trend was even stronger for the most common form of the disease-tumours whose growth is fuelled by hormones .