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Manson and others who worked on the WHI study noted the women in it were on average 63 - a decade past menopause.

They wondered what would happen with younger women just entering menopause.

So they used data from the Nurses' Health Study, an ongoing study of 121 700 female nurses, aged 30 to 55 when it started in 1976.

Every two years these women have filled out detailed questionnaires on their health, habits and medications.

When they died, their medical records were carefully added.

The nurses' data showed that if women took HRT at younger ages, they had a 30% lower risk of heart disease than women the same age who did not take HRT.

"It does suggest that women who are good candidates for hormone therapy because they are recently menopausal and having moderate to severe hot flushes and are at low risk of heart disease may not need to be alarmed about the (earlier) findings," said Manson.

"The evidence is beginning to converge.

But it is certainly not conclusive.

We don't want people running out and taking hormone therapy and thinking it is going to protect their heart and that there are no risks involved." Writing in the Journal of Women's Health, Manson and colleagues stress that more r...

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