Women seeking relief from the symptoms of menopause haven't had many options since 2002, when medical research cast a dark shadow over the use of hormones.

Research at the time found that the combination of estrogen and progestin significantly increased a woman's risk of developing breast cancer, leading to a fairly abrupt decline in the use of hormone replacement therapy to relieve hot flashes and other unpleasant symptoms.

It may be winter, but menopausal women across the country are still sweating, flashing and disrobing. You would think that by now someone would have come up with something better than a portable fan to fix this problem.

No one can say yet whether women are better off suffering the symptoms than popping a Premarin or Prempro, brand names for estrogen drugs. More research is needed.

Estrogen can relieve menopausal symptoms and works well in even very small doses, but many women can't — or chose not to — take estrogen.

It doesn't help that every time you open a newspaper, there is more alarming information about the potential dangers of estrogen replacements. The reassuring information that doctors might learn about estrogen never seems to make it to the front page.

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