Raging hormones: gender and renal disease.

Gender affects the progression of renal disease. In a variety of animal models and in certain human renal diseases, females exhibit a more modest course of kidney disease. Estrogens and testosterone have been implicated in this gender disparity.

Raloxifene, a selective estrogen receptor modulator, is renoprotective: a post-hoc analysis.

Estrogens have a protective effect on kidney fibrosis in several animal models. Here, we tested the effect of raloxifene, an estrogen receptor modulator, on the change in serum creatinine or estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and incident kidney-related adverse events. We performed a post-hoc analysis of the multiple outcomes of raloxifene evaluation trial, a double-masked, placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial encompassing 7705 post-menopausal women (aged 31-80 years) with osteoporosis.

The effects of hormone replacement therapy on renal function.

This Practice Point commentary discusses a study by Ahmed et al. that evaluated the effects of hormone replacement therapy (conjugated estrogen alone, progestin alone or a combination of progestin and conjugated estrogen) on renal function in elderly community-dwelling postmenopausal women. The authors found that oral estrogen therapy in this population was associated with accelerated decline in kidney function over a 2-year period.