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Women who use hormone replacement therapy combining estrogen and progestin may have a higher risk of lung cancer than non-users, a new study finds

Whether hormone replacement therapy (HRT) itself is to blame is not certain, researchers say. But the findings add to the complicated mix of potential health effects of HRT.

The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, looked at new lung cancer diagnoses among more than 36,000 women ages 50 to 75 who were followed over six years. During that time, 344 women developed the cancer.

Overall, researchers found, the risk was greater among women who had used HRT containing estrogen and progestin (a synthetic version of the hormone progesterone) compared with women who had never used HRT.

Oestrogen-like compounds found in soy won't help limit body fat in post-menopausal women, new research shows.

Animal studies and small studies in humans have offered some evidence that these compounds, known as isoflavones, could help build muscle mass and reduce fat mass, Dr. Oksana A. Matvienko of the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls and her colleagues write in the journal Menopause.

It's unclear why such compounds might have any effect on body composition, but it's possible that they might act as estrogen does, to affect hormones that play a role in fat and sugar metabolism.

Women should be given “confident advice” which allows them to make an “informed choice” about using hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to relieve symptoms of menopause, Irish Menopause Society (IMS) president Dr Barbara O’Beirne has said.

“It is time to rethink the whole area of HRT and give women confident, reliable advice,” Dr O’Beirne told the Irish Menopause Society’s (IMS) annual symposium in Dublin at the weekend.

While it was “very hard” for doctors to “reason away fear” generated by the 2002 controversy over the drug, HRT could provide a “window of opportunity” for women in certain categories with certain symptoms, Dr O’Beirne noted.

Some good news for a change - A 37-year-old woman diagnosed as being in early menopause had a baby boy earlier this month, growing eggs through the administration of a hormonal agent, her doctors said Saturday. St Marianna University School of Medicine in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, stirred the formation of ovarian follicles by administering the hormonal agent to pick up eggs from it, and grew them using culture fluid for external fertilization.

The fertile eggs were placed in the woman’s uterus. She was diagnosed as being in premature menopause in her 20s but eventually gave birth to the 2,900-gram baby.

Some women find hot flushes/flashes no big deal. Others find the hot flashes, but maybe also those flash-free women annoying. It's no fun to suddenly turn red in the face, break into a sweat and possibly feel palpitations during an important meeting. Disrupted sleep from night sweats can hurt your mood, concentration and energy.

For Karen Drexel, the waves of sudden, burning heat began a few years ago, at age 45. "It starts sort of low and works its way up," says Drexel of Greece, N.Y., now 48. "Your whole body starts perspiring. By the time it reaches your upper body, you're like this," she says, fanning her face with her hand to illustrate. If home when a hot flash hit, she'd press an ice pack to the back of her neck for some relief - or stand in front of an open refrigerator.

About one in five women residing in India are likely to experience menopause by the age of 41, according to a study conducted by Bangalore, India-based Institute for Social and Economic Change, London's Times reports. According to the Times, the onset of menopause usually begins between ages 45 and 55, with a worldwide average of 51. Premature menopause is the end of menstruation before age 40 and affects about 1% of women worldwide.

For the study, T. S. Syamala and M. Sivakami of ISEC used data from the National Family Health Survey, conducted in 1988 and 1999, which examined about 90,000 married women ages 15 to 49 across 26 Indian states. The study found that 3.1% of women living in India became menopausal between ages 30 and 34, 8% of women experienced menopause by age 39 and 19% of were menopausal by age 41. The average menopausal age in India is 44.3 years. The study found that premature menopause was most common in rural areas, as well as among agricultural workers, women who were illiterate and women who had a low body mass index.

A new Canadian-led trial finds a safer and equally effective alternative therapy for controlling hot flushes and night sweats. The study suggested that a old treatment derived from progesterone may be as effective as estrogen for quelling hot flushes.

Medroxyprogesterone, a synthetic version of the hormone progesterone, was first made about 40 years ago, when progesterone itself was not available in an oral form – said Dr.Jerilynn Prior, professor of endocrinology and medicine at the University of B.C. and Vancouver Hospital.

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The natural herb black cohosh is commonly used by women to treat menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes, but the molecular mechanisms underlying its action have eluded scientists - until now.

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the National Institutes of Health Center for Botanical Dietary Supplements Research have discovered that black cohosh may act on human opiate receptors, which play a role in regulating a body's temperature.

Z. Jim Wang, assistant professor of pharmacology and pharmaceutics, led the study, which will be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry; the paper is currently available on the journal's web site.

Bionovo, Inc.'s paper describing the mechanism of action of MF101, the company's lead drug candidate for menopausal symptoms, has been published in Endocrinology, a journal published by The Endocrine Society. The paper titled "Selective activation of estrogen receptor beta transcriptional pathways by an herbal extract" details how MF101 is selective to the estrogen receptor beta (ER-b) and does not affect estrogen receptor alpha (ER-a). This is a significant milestone toward the development of safe and effective drugs for menopause since it has been shown that the increased risk of breast and uterine cancers is associated with ER-a activation and that ER-b blocks the growth promoting effects on breast cancer cells.

A simple test telling women how many years they have left to start a family has been developed by fertility experts.

By measuring the speed of a woman's biological clock, the mail order kit gives early warning of declining fertility.

The test's inventor, Professor Bill Ledger, said it could make the difference between motherhood and remaining childless.

"It can change people's lives because it can give them the change to have children while they are still young enough to do it and not put it off until it is too late," he said.

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