It has mystified me for years that the positive research about FDA-approved bioidentical hormones was ignored in the mainstream media.  Now, nearly five years after government scientists told women that taking estrogen replacement therapy increased their risk of heart attacks and strokes, researchers have concluded that the drugs are beneficial for many.  (the following adapted from The Boston Globe) – Continuing analysis of the original data indicates that the researchers raised a false alarm for most women and that, if women begin taking the hormones shortly after menopause, the drugs do not raise the risk of heart disease and, in fact, might lower it.  The latest piece of evidence, in today’s New England Journal of Medicine, shows that taking estrogen for seven years or more after menopause reduces calcification of the arteries — one of the key indicators fo atheroscclerosis — by as much as 60 percent.  High levels of calcification are generally considered a predictor of increased risk for a heart attack.  The only group of women at significant risk from the drugs are those who delay taking them for at least 10 years after menopause, experts said.  Dr. Howard Hodis, director of the atherosclerosis research unit at the University of Southern California, said that “there is absolutely no evidence, none, zero, that if you start a woman on estrogen at menopause and continue until she is 80, the risk goes up as she gets older.”  There is an increased risk of breast cancer with age for estrogen plus progestin, the Wyeth products like Prempro and Premarin that were used in the original WHI Study.  Dr. Robert Rebar, executive director of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, concluded: “We are clearly learning that the benefits of estrogen in young, healthy symptomatic post-menopausal women outweigh the risks.