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"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...

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, age 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.

30% lower risk 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 flashes and are at low risk of heart disease may not need to be alarmed about the (earlier) findings," Manson said in a telephone interview.

"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 was going to protect their heart and that there are no risks involved." Writing in t...

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.Lower risk of heart diseaseThe nurses' data showed that if women took HRT at younger ages, they had a 30 percent 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 flashes and are at low risk of heart disease may not need to be alarmed about the (earlier) findings," Manson said in a telephone interview."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 was going to protect their heart and that there are no risks involved."Writing in the Journal of Women...