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ATLANTA (AP) - Five years after a landmark study scared millions of women off hormones for menopause symptoms, new research suggests the pills may offer some heart benefits for certain younger women who start taking them in their 50s. Women who took estrogen suffered less hardening of the arteries than those who took dummy pills, researchers reported in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.
It was the latest study in recent months to suggest that women who take hormones at the start of menopause seem to gain some health benefits beyond relief from hot flashes. That is in sharp contrast to women who raise their health risks when they take hormones in their 60s and 70s.
In general, experts' advice hasn't changed: Use hormones only as needed to treat hot flashes, sleeplessness and other symptoms at the start of menopause. And use the lowest possible dose for the shortest possible time — no longer than four or five years.
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