http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v287n5/rfull/joc10108.html

Hormones may improve quality of life if a woman has menopausal symptoms, but they decrease quality of life in the absence of symptoms.

So interesting to have a scientific study back up the anecdoctal evidence of this forum. Those of us who suffer symptons won't give up their hormones for anything. And those of us (me) who have minor, intermittent, and tolerable menopausal symptons won't touch them.

I think it's a lot more complex than that. I think that many women with significant symptoms decide it's better to ride out the symptoms and avoid the dangerous drugs. I also know many women who have no symptoms who take the drugs for supposed future benefits - benefits that are increasingly doubtful. It's important to remember that many doctors now advise taking hormones for only 5 years. For 2/3 of women who take hormones, all the symptoms they took them for come back when they are stopped. So they've merely delayed the discomfort by 5 years. In some cases the problems may be worse when they stop than they were originally.

A gyn is quoted in the washington post this morning saying that soon there will be no indications for estrogen use except hot flashes and that the number of prescriptions for these drugs will fall off remarkably.

As we've seen here, hormones don't even work reliably for hot flashes. In many cases even when they do work for hot flashes the side effects are worse than the hot flashes.