Prempro

So instead of HRT, "which scares me," Ms.

Smith now takes 1,000 milligrams a day of Vitamin E, which she believes help alleviate her symptoms.

As Ms.

Smith found, it comes down to balancing risk versus quality of life.

"I think you have to work with a patient's belief structure, her personal mythology," Dr.

Minkin said.

"I'm perhaps a little fringe-ier than most, but I just give them all the pros and cons and let them make the decision." "HRT does work the best, but the key idea here is, it's not the only option," said Dr.

Minkin.

Indeed, for people like Barb Pionati, HRT remains the only game in town.

An oncology nurse who experienced menopause in her mid-thirties, Ms.

Pionati was startled to read the results of the WHI study.

After her gynecologist laid out the data in more detail, she decided to stay on HRT.

"I felt it was worth the risks in terms of quality of life issues," said Ms.

Pionati, of Point Breeze.

She has stayed with hormones "because with them, I have a brain, and I have a sex life." That's an attitude that Dr.

Portman encounters frequently in her practice among women who have been told by other doctors they won't prescribe HRT.

"They say, 'If you tell me you're not going to prescribe this, I'm going to find someone else who ...

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