These new findings suggest the possibility that if a woman starts hormone therapy sooner rather than later, perhaps we will see some of the protective effects on the heart that natural estrogen provides - or at least it won't increase the risk of cardiovascular-related harm.

We will examine the condition of their arteries before, during and after therapy, and compare it to women on no therapy to see if the hormones cause or prevent changes leading to heart disease.

I think for people who were not convinced of the risk, this provides further evidence.

We really need to understand more about why some of the studies in this area still seem to disagree.

Together with that was the women who were receiving hormone therapy had a greater occurrence of leg clots, deep vein leg thrombosis and a sizeable increase in gall bladder disease. So we began to see adverse effects and no benefit, and this really raised concern,

I think there's a strong possibility that she's not alive. If a woman leaves a spouse because of personal issues that's one thing. But to leave every personal belonging, your car, a child and your only source of income for prescriptions ... She left an awful lot just to leave and start over.