The stopping of a major hormone therapy trial in early July 2002 has sent many women to their health care providers for advice on whether to continue hormone use. The multi-center trial, one component of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) at the National Institutes of Health, examined the long-term benefits of estrogen and progestin in 16,000 healthy postmenopausal women ages 50-79.

To get some advice from experts about the implications of this trial, BenchMarks interviewed several WHI principal investigators as well as scientists involved in previous hormone trials.

Hormone therapy, either estrogen alone or estrogen combined with progestin, has been the subject of numerous studies over the past two decades. Some of the findings have suggested benefits to hormone use; some have suggested risks.