Estrogen has positive impact on healing of vaginal wounds: Study

Striking evidence from animal studies dating back to 1962 that estrogens play a crucial role in cutaneous wound healing and repair is reported. Characteristic of both chronic wounds and acute wounds that fail to heal are excessive leukocytosis and reduced matrix deposition. Estrogen is a major regulator of wound repair that can reverse age-related impaired wound healing in humans.

A systematic search by Dr Eva V. Vodegel MD and team has revealed that estrogen therapy has a positive effect on vaginal wound healing. However future studies are required to determine whether oestrogen therapy has the potential to improve surgical outcomes.

The findings of the study are published in Neurology and Urodynamics.

The objective of the study was to determine the effects of oestrogen or oestrogen deprivation on vaginal wound healing.

The study was a systematic search of OVID MEDLINE, OVID Embase, and Web of Science was conducted up to January 28, 2020. They included original studies comparing wound healing-related outcomes of oestrogen exposed subjects (female animals and women) to hypo-oestrogenic subjects after vaginal surgery. Data on wound healing-related outcome measures were extracted. For each individual comparison, the standardised mean difference (Hedges' g; SMD) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated.