Cited by 341Menopause: Health Impacts and TreatmentsEstrogen and related hormone effectsHormonal and reproductive studies

Menopausal hormone therapy and type 2 diabetes prevention: evidence, mechanisms, and clinical implications

Open access
Mauvais-Jarvis, Franck, Manson, JoAnn E., Stevenson, John C., Fonseca, Vivian A.·2017·Endocrine Reviews

Abstract

Type 2 diabetes has reached epidemic proportions in the United States. Large, randomized controlled trials suggest that menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) delays the onset of type 2 diabetes in women. However, the mechanisms and clinical implications of this association are still a matter of controversy. This review provides an up-to-date analysis and integration of epidemiological, clinical, and basic studies, and proposes a mechanistic explanation for the effect of menopause and MHT on type 2 diabetes development and prevention. We discuss the beneficial effects of endogenous estradiol with respect to insulin secretion, insulin sensitivity, and glucose effectiveness; we also discuss energy expenditure and adipose distribution, both of which are affected by menopause and improved by MHT, which thereby decreases the incidence of type 2 diabetes. We reconcile differences among studies that investigated the effect of menopause and MHT formulations on type 2 diabetes. We argue that discrepancies arise from physiological differences in methods used to assess glucose homeostasis, ranging from clinical indices of insulin sensitivity to steady-state methods to assess insulin action. We also discuss the influence of the route of estrogen administration and the addition of progestogens. We conclude that, although MHT is neither approved nor appropriate for the prevention of type 2 diabetes due to its complex balance of risks and benefits, it should not be withheld from women with increased risk of type 2 diabetes who seek treatment for menopausal symptoms.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1210/er.2016-1146

Cites

146 of 146 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Estrogen replacement therapy in postmenopausal women can promote weight loss and improve metabolic markers including fat distribution, notably by increasing subcutaneous fat and reducing visceral fat mass.

    “Studies generally show that estrogen replacement therapy in postmenopausal women can promote weight loss and improve metabolic markers including fat distribution, notably by increasing subcutaneous fat and reducing visceral fat mass (201–203).”

    From Metabolic impact of endogenously produced estrogens by adipose tissue in females and males across the lifespan (2025) · cites this paper as [201]

    The section “Effect of MHT on energy balance and adipose tissue mass” (page unavailable) reports that most long-term studies found reduced abdominal fat deposition and that large trials found reduced total and intra-abdominal fat. “Mechanisms of Antidiabetic Actions of MHT” also mentions reductions in BMI and waist circumference. Our copy does not establish the claimed increase in subcutaneous fat or a general weight-loss effect; it notes that some estrogen regimens increased fat mass. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Part of this paper’s reference list could not be split into single entries.

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. Lindheim SR, Buchanan TA, Duffy DM, Vijod MA, Kojima T, Stanczyk FZ, Lobo RA. Comparison of esti- mates of insulin sensitivity in pre-and postmenopausal women using the insulin tolerance test and the fre- quently sampled intravenous glucose tolerance test. J Soc Gynecol Investig. 1994;1(2):150-154.
  2. Xu B, Allard C, Mauvais-Jarvis F. Estrogen complexes improve the unfolded protein response and prevent ER-stress induced beta cell failure in Akita mice. Di- abetes. 2015;64:A35.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Mauvais-Jarvis, F., Manson, J. E., Stevenson, J. C., & Fonseca, V. A.
Affiliations
  • Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, School of Medicine, Tulane University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, Louisiana 70112
  • Brigham and Women's Hospital (US)
  • Royal Brompton Hospital (GB)
  • Tulane University (US)
Venue
Endocrine Reviews
Published
2017-03-08
Volume
38
Issue
3
Pages
173-188
ISSN
  • 0163-769X (ISSN-L)
  • 1945-7189
OpenAlex
W2606520020
Cited by
341
References
146
Citations by year
2026: 34 · 2025: 42 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 38 · 2022: 48 · 2021: 46 · 2020: 39 · 2019: 35 · 2018: 24 · 2017: 13
FWCI
4.43
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Endocrine Reviews (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • American Diabetes Association (7-13-BS-101, DK074970)
  • Abbott Laboratories
  • Pfizer
  • Tulane University
  • National Institutes of Health (HHSN268201100001C, CA-138962)
  • National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (HHSN2682011-00001I, R01HL034594)
  • National Cancer Institute (U01CA138962, R01CA138962)
  • National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (R01DK107444, R01DK074970)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Menopause: Health Impacts and Treatments
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Estrogen and related hormone effects
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Hormonal and reproductive studies
Keywords
hormone replacement therapy, type 2 diabetes prevention, menopause, endogenous estradiol, insulin secretion, insulin sensitivity, glucose effectiveness, energy expenditure, body fat distribution, progestogens, menopausal symptoms
MeSH terms
Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2, Estrogens, Female, Humans, Menopause, Estrogen Replacement Therapy, Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic, Hormone Replacement Therapy

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review