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That means possible blood clots and elevated levels of a cardiovascular risk factor called C-reactive protein.

This is an unnecessary tradeoff for better skin or a healthy vagina when there are other products available that can reach the same goals, says Dr.

Alan Altman, an assistant professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Those products include gels, patches, creams, rings and tablets.

Even drops put under the tongue are far preferable to pills, he says.

Altman is the author of a book whose information on oral estrogen he is even now repudiating.

(See Page 25 of "Making Love the Way We Used to .

.

.

Or Better," $14.95, Contemporary Books.) "The change of direction came as the WHI came out," he said following a lecture in Palm Beach, where signed copies of the book were given to guests.

"The book is copyrighted 2001, and it was written between 1999 and 2000.

We were using different kinds of orals, but even then, we knew when a woman had a thrombotic event (blood clots), the answer (when using hormones) was always non-oral.

"Disregard (what is written in the book about) orals.

That was written quite some time ago, and we've ...

Wyeth filed the petition because of potential risks to women's health and possible violations of manufacturing practices, said Candace Steele, Wyeth director of global public relations.

The petition has riled the compounding-pharmacy industry and advocates for compounded bio-identical hormone-replacement therapy – custom-made medications with plant ingredients that mimic human hormones.

"In the worst case scenario - if (Wyeth) got everything they wanted - it would drastically reduce the number of compounding pharmacies and limit what we can do," said Clay Hammett, pharmacist and manager at California Pharmacy & Compounding Center in Newport Beach.

The compounding-pharmacy industry is fighting back by asking patients and doctors who write prescriptions for bio-identical hormones to submit letters and send e-mail urging the FDA to keep the hormones available.

At California Pharmacy, patients can take home a flier that walks them through the process of filing comments urging the FDA to deny Wyeth's requests.

The FDA is expected to review the responses after the April 4 comment deadline.

Compounding pharmacies have been around for decades, but the landmark Women's Health Initiative in 2002 pushed them int...