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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 "If they work, you stick with them." Special Offer: Get 2 weeks of 7-day delivery Free when you buy 13 weeks.

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©The Times November 11, 2005 Health/Fitness Headlines For the Week • Food marketers look to chronic disease to shape message• David McMillain: Trust necessary before revelation• Connie Aclin: Mustard offers flavor without guilt• Movies inspire children to smoke• CBS, NBC break mold of TV distribution model• Briefs• Sela Ward brings heart to 'House'• Coffee doesn't harm women's blood pressure, recent study suggests• Menopausal women opt for 'natural' remedies• Try your luck• Dinner Date: New Shogun location offers interesting tastes• Time bomb: Lack of sleep common among teens• Busy bodies: Time management skills he...

"If they work, you stick with them."Although some compounded hormones are identical to FDA-regulated drugs, they don't have to carry a black-box warning.Wyeth petitioned the FDA to crack down on what it sees as illegal and potentially dangerous sales of compounded hormonesPharmacist Carol Peterson of Women's International says she wouldn't object to putting black- box warnings on her hormones.

And, Peterson says, she recognizes that bioidentical hormones have never been studied as rigorously as Wyeth's hormones.And, Dr.

Wulf H.

Utian, executive director of the North American Menopause Society says, when women come in the office brandishing computer printouts and asking for prescriptions for bioidentical hormones, "the truth is there are a lot of physicians who just don't have time to argue." Printer friendly | Email this story Glossary According to the Women's International Web site, bioidentical hormones "are 'natural' to the human body," leading many women to assume they are safer than drug companies' hormones.A "black box" warning is the strongest type of wa...

Wyeth's senior corporate counsel, Mark Lynch, also said that doctors and patients had been warned about the breast cancer link.

"That information had been on the Santa Monica plaintiffs' lawyer Gary M.

Paul disagrees.

"No one had ever indicated either to the doctors or to the women how much of an increase there was for breast cancer from using this medication," he said.

Regardless, news of the study was enough to persuade thousands of women to stop taking the drugs.

One was Fran Yeoman of Pacific Palisades.

The retired bookkeeper, 67, took the drugs for eight years to cope with insomnia and occasional hot flashes and said they were "wonderful." Yeoman swallowed her last pill in July 2002 when she had to temporarily stop all medications before hip replacement surgery.

Days after her surgery came news of the study linking the hormone drugs to health problems.

"I called my gynecologist and told her I didn't want to go back on it." Later that year Yeoman learned she had breast cancer, and she has since sued several drug companies.

After a lumpectomy and radiation treatment, Yeoman s...