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CHICAGO (AP) - Judy Smith says she had five years without hot flashes while participating in a study of hormone supplements. But she quit taking them after results showed the pills could cause more harm than good. The symptoms returned for Smith — and many other participants in a new survey, suggesting the pills might postpone but not prevent menopausal symptoms.
"You can't necessarily expect to just skip that stage" by taking hormones, said Dr. Judith Ockene of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, the survey's lead author.
The survey, which appears in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, also found that menopause symptoms can last longer than many women thought. More than one-third of women who reported symptoms after stopping the study pills were in their 60s and 70s — at least 10 years older than the average age of menopause.
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