Prempro

Many women who quit taking hormones never looked back, but some, like Forbes, found the return of menopausal symptoms intolerable.

They tried soy and herbal remedies, but nothing worked as well as estrogen.

So "natural" and "bioidentical" hormones held great appeal, especially given that the estrogen in "There are quite a few women like me who have not had success with traditional approaches and have looked for something else," says Barb Gomach, 54.

"If they work, you stick with them." Gomach, of Madison, Wis., says she tried vitamin E, black cohosh and finally The first two were no help, and she experienced such side effects as vaginal bleeding on For several years, she has been buying progesterone capsules from Women's International, although she still uses a commercial estradiol patch because, unlike the compounded hormones, her insurance covers it.

'Breakdown in regulation' Although some compounded hormones are identical to FDA-regulated drugs, they don't have to carry a black-box warning.

Compounding pharmacies "fly a little under the radar," says Michelle Curtis, chair of an American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' panel that publish...

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