It is still not an easy decision. Hormone replacement therapy really does help, experts stress. It alleviates menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes, atrophy of the vagina and genitourinary tract, and bone loss. The study released Tuesday confirmed that hormones help ward off fractures in older women. And many women just feel better taking hormones.

Hormone replacement therapy began in the 1930s and gained momentum with the introduction of Premarin, a drug that contained a mix of estrogens obtained from pregnant mares' urine. Even then, there were hints that estrogen replacement could have benefits for the bones and heart in post-menopausal women.

There was certainly science to back the notion that estrogen could help preserve a woman's health. In one landmark paper in 1976, scientists reported that women who had had their ovaries removed-- and thus were severely estrogen-deficient--could prevent osteoporosis by taking estrogen.