Background: Estrogen increases fatty acid utilization and oxidation and may decrease glucose use in human skeletal muscle, whereas these effects are attenuated by progesterone. Whether these ovarian hormones exhibit similar effects on myocardial metabolism is unknown.
Methods And Results: Myocardial blood flow and oxygen consumption, as well as glucose and fatty acid metabolism, were examined retrospectively by use of positron emission tomography in 24 postmenopausal women receiving estrogen (n = 7), estrogen plus progesterone (n = 8), or no hormone replacement (n = 9) and in 22 age-matched men.