"In conclusion, estrogen/progestin therapy may have either positive or negative effects on quality of life depending on the presence or absence of postmenopausal symptoms. Women with flushing have improvements in emotional dimensions of quality of life when given hormone therapy, but women without menopausal symptoms have net negative effects on physical dimensions of quality of life."

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'm not sure it's true that "[t]hose 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.

I thought it was interesting that when my mother was taken off estrogen she began to have hot flashes again. It seems that her body is resuming the process that was stopped when she began the estrogen. She was on it for about 3 decades and a PA took her off of it in case it was contributing to her eye hemorhaging. It apparantly was since she hasn't had any more problems since going off of it. It's just too bad someone didn't think of it before she lost some of her eyesight. That eye problem usually in found in diabetics, which she isn't.

Ouch. I hope your mother's doctor reported this to the FDA. This recurrence of hot flashes and other discomfort is one of the dirty little secrets a lot of doctors don't bother to tell their patients about. Many also fail to tell their patients that any bone benefit ceases when the drugs are stopped and that after 2 years any evidence of any bone benefit has disappeared.