Routine screening for osteoporosis should include all younger postmenopausal women who have at least the same chance of a bone break as an older woman, a government task force said Monday. Also, for the first time, the group weighed whether men should be checked for the bone-thinning ...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Researchers have wondered whether replacing the small amount of testosterone women stop producing after having hysterectomies could improve the memory loss many postmenopausal women experience. But testosterone treatment may not improve women's memory skills after such surgeries, according to a new study, suggesting that it may not help other women after menopause either. Women who ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Women who go through menopause early, before age 46, may have more than twice the risk of having a heart attack, stroke or other cardiovascular event later in life, researchers reported on Monday. The risk was the same even when women took hormone replacement therapy, which doctors once prescribed expressly to prevent heart disease, the researchers said at ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Women who want to use hormone replacement therapy may be less likely to have a stroke if they use low-dose patches instead of pills, Canadian researchers reported on Thursday. Their study of British women showed that those who used estrogen patches to control symptoms of menopause did not have any higher risk of stroke than women who did ...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Exercise may help older women maintain their bone density, but adding the supplement black cohosh to the routine does not bring any extra benefits, a new study suggests. Researchers found that among 128 postmenopausal women they studied for one year, those who were randomly assigned to regularly exercise generally maintained their bone density. In contrast, women ...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Despite supplement makers' claims and popular perceptions, the benefits of soy in fighting hot flashes in women going through menopause remain unproven, according to a new analysis of 19 studies. Soy contains estrogen-like compounds, and researchers have proposed that the amount of soy a woman consumes may influence her risk of having hot flashes and night ...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Despite some hopeful hints from earlier research, a new study finds that older women on hormone replacement therapy may not gain any protection from disability as they age. Researchers have speculated that waning estrogen levels may contribute to muscle loss and other declines in physical function as women age. Muscle cells have receptors for estrogen, and ...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Older women who use certain forms of hormone replacement therapy seem to perform better on tests of memory and mental speed than other women do, a new study finds. In a four-year study of 3,130 French women age 65 and older, researchers found that those currently on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) performed better on certain ...

EDITOR'S NOTE: Ten years and $2.5 billion in research have found no cures from alternative medicine. Yet these mostly unproven treatments are now mainstream and used by more than a third of all Americans. This is one in an occasional series examining their use and potential risks ...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The risk for major depression more than doubles while women are going through menopause and afterward, according to research presented this week at the annual meeting of the North American Menopause Society in San Diego. Recent studies have suggested that the risk for depressive symptoms in women increases in midlife, around the time of menopause, perhaps ...