Uncertainty about Postmenopausal Estrogen

Despite the important epidemiologic evidence provided by Dr. Stampfer and his colleagues in this issue of the Journal 1 of the apparently protective effect of postmenopausal estrogen-replacement therapy against coronary events in women, it is disappointing that we in medicine collectively have not made more progress toward resolving the clinical conundrum of postmenopausal estrogen replacement. After all, this is a therapy that may affect the development of the most common cause of death in women (coronary heart disease), one of the two leading causes of death from cancer in women (breast cancer), a major cause of morbidity in women (osteoporosis), and . . .