Prempro

"These are very expensive studies to undertake," Mangione acknowledged.

"At the same time, this is a condition that affects a lot of women in the United States."Cynthia Pearson, executive director of the National Women's Health Network, praised the panel's push for more research.

"Women can make very good decisions about their own health if they have very good information on which to base those decisions," Pearson said.The full text of the panel's draft statement is available online at consensus.nih.gov.

The final version of the statement will be available at the same Web address in about four weeks.

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Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a division of Wyeth , believes these data are important because up to 20 percent of a woman's expected lifetime bone loss can occur in the years immediately following menopause.

Postmenopausal bone loss can lead to osteoporosis.

According to Robert Lindsay, MD, PhD, the lead author of this new report and Director, Clinical Research Center, Helen Hayes Hospital, these data add important new information about bone protection with low doses of PREMARIN or "While previous research has shown the overall change in BMD for the population studied, this study goes further by documenting the percentage of women taking low doses of PREMARIN or Lindsay.

"This information may be important when making treatment recommendations for women with menopausal symptoms who are also at risk of developing osteoporosis." The Women's HOPE Study is a prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter trial of 2,673 healthy postmenopausal women (40 to 65 years of age).

The new report is based on a 2-year substudy of 822 Women's HOPE Study participants that evaluated the effects of various doses of PREMARIN (conjugated estrogens [CE]) and