Prempro

"I think the study itself is reassuring," said James H.

Pickar, Wyeth's assistant vice president of clinical research and development.

He said that menopause hormones "should not be used for the prevention of cardiovascular disease, but they continue to be valuable treatments for the relief of menopausal symptoms." What is so surprising about the latest hormone news is where it comes from.

While hormone advocates have long criticized the findings of the WHI, the new Journal of Women's Health report doesn't come from the anti-WHI camp.

It's co-written by Harvard Medical School researcher JoAnn Manson, who was also the lead author on the WHI report linking hormones with higher heart-attack risk.

Dr.

Manson, who stands by the original findings of the WHI heart study, nevertheless believes the results have been too broadly interpreted and that more research on younger women is necessary.

"It's an oversimplification to say hormone therapy is good for all women or bad for all women," says Dr.

Manson, an endocrinologist at Harvard's Brigham and Women's hospital.

"Clearly the truth is somewhere in between." In addition to the nurse data, the Journal of Women's Health article also detailed another analysis that Dr.

Manson's group conducted - this time of data from the WHI.

In that analysis, researchers found...

Read more...