The drugs in question are Premarin, which is an estrogen replacement, and Prempro, which is a combination of estrogen and progestin.

Wyeth has previously been sued for Premarin and Prempro and the results of these lawsuits have been mixed.

Her oncologist blamed her death on the replacement hormone drug Premarin, which was prescribed to alleviate symptoms of her menopause.

Barbara Seaman's first book, The Doctors' Case Against the Pill, has triggered debate and Senate hearings, which lead to the industry's first informational insert for any prescription drug being attached to the pill.

Helene Rush sued the company's parent, Wyeth, in 2005, accusing the New Jersey drug maker of negligence in its Premarin and Prempro hormone replacement therapy.

In her appeal, Rush said that the jury received improper instructions and that a federal judge allowed improper expert testimony while disallowing expert testimony for Rush.

Lawyers for Wyeth said at trial that Rush likely would have developed breast cancer regardless of whether she took Premarin and Prempro because of genetic and health factors, such as weight gain and a history of smoking.

In Reno, Nev., last year, jurors awarded $99 million in punitive damages to three Nevada women who sued over the hormone therapy.

Those desiring alternatives to standard hormone replacement therapy (HRT) during menopause will find useful information in each of these books.

All explain menopausal symptoms, current HRT treatment and side effects, the importance of particular hormones, and the use of plant hormones instead of synthesized drugs.

They include an interesting historical overview of both the medicinal use of plants and the pharmaceutical industry, also detailing what the "naturals" are and how to get them.

In Germany ginkgo biloba is one of the top selling products among all medicines — not just herbs!

Purposes for which ginkgo is used include general brain insufficiency (memory, blood circulation), cold hands and feet, Alzheimer's disease, tinnitus, depression, eye function in glaucoma, reduced sexual function — for men or women, and to help reduce free radicals, which cause damage to cells.

Another possible cause of poor memory during menopause is the effect of lowered estrogen levels at this time; but this notwithstanding, it is worth trying ginkgo anyway for poor memory in menopause because of its good safety record.

Another benefit of ginkgo at menopause time is that it improve libido for both sexes — and reduced libido is something a fairly high proportion of woman complain of at menopause time.

Cautions The only concern reported with ginkgo is that it is suggested that ginkgo may increase the chance of bleeding if blood-thinning herbs, such as Warfarin, are being taken.

Last year, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists gave warning that many herbal remedies and supplements with purported benefits have not been properly tested and may interact with other medication.

As one of the plant compounds called phytoestrogens, isoflavones are known to act in a similar way to the female hormone oestrogen in some parts of the body.

"Giving women vitamin C with bioflavonoids has been shown to help reduce hot flushes," says Dr Marilyn Glenville, author of The New Natural Alternatives to HRT.

Maintaining a proper balance of dietary fats can help to prevent much of the bone loss associated with postmenopausal osteoporosis, according to a study by scientists at the Indiana University School of Medicine last year.

Researchers found that diets with a low ratio of omega-6 fatty acids (found in grains and meat) to omega-3 fatty acids (found in nuts and fish oils) minimised the osteoporosis brought on by oestrogen deficiency.

"We found that higher fitness levels enhance the effects of shorter durations of hormone treatment and offset the mental declines associated with long-term use," Professor Arthur Kramer, a psychologist, said.

Results of small-scale trials in the treatment of menopausal symptoms such as hot flushes, fatigue and mood disturbance, appear to be helped by homeopathy.

Question: Breast cancer risk increase in post-menopausal woman more than pre-menopausal women. How can we think about the risk with hormone replacement therapy (HRT) compared to a long accumulation of natural estrogen? Is it more of a balance issue, more than estrogen itself?

Answer: If we go back to the data we can learn more about dosage vs. risks. It's clear that obesity increases risk in post menopausal women. It's clear it does that because purple fat produces estrogen. If you look at the relationship between obesity and replacement hormones you find a really interesting phenomenon. If you are obese hormones are not bad for you. If you are normal weight or below they are bad for you. If you look at the dose response curve if they are both working through a hormone mechanism you see a leveling out of the dose response curve. That's part of the problem in comparing over time and comparing the W.H.I studies with other studies. The average B.M.I. In the W.H.I studies is a little over 30, which is obese. It looks like good studies of where the estrogen is coming from and total estrogen may be very valuable to know in formulating prevention.

Get Flash to see this player.

Questions to Doctor Robert N Hoover, MD, PhD, Director of the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Program in the Intramural Research Program of the National Cancer Institute at the NIH's Director's Wednesday afternoon lecture series – May 16, 2007 – “Hormones and Breast Cancer”

Question: Are you still enthusiastic about the estrogen metabolism hypothesis or not? If you are what are the next steps?

Answer: I am enthusiastic since it's taken us 6 years to develop a way to test it. So I'm bound and determined that I'm going to test it. I think the quick look at the Asian metabolic profiles made me more interested in looking at it since it actually went the way of the first hypothesis in the field. I must say the laboratory people that work in this field have been focused on this for a decade or more with a lot of reason that these are worth looking at. It, as far as I know, didn't crack into the clinical, epidemiological mindset until January of 2006 when the group at Hopkins, Yeager and others, wrote a kind of review paper of it. It was like a revelation that there was all this vast wealth of basic science data saying these metabolites may have more to say about risk than the parent compounds themselves. So I'm enthusiastic about looking at it but hard data should tell us if there is anything going on or not.

Question: With having told us a little bit about the association between estrogen and breast cancer, I was wondering if you would comment on current concerns about phytoestrogen in the environment, particularly in food products?

Answer: There has been a whole movement of concern about estrogenic substances in the environment and what impact they may have on cancers as well as other diseases. When I first started to go to meetings where this was talked about I was somewhat skeptical. Then somebody showed me the data of the vast numbers of women in this country (U.S.) who are taking oral contraceptives and hormone replacement therapies and what happens when their waste products goes into the sewage system (then into the Chesapeake Bay). The concentrations are really flabbergastingly high of steroid hormones and synthetic hormones. I think there is an issue. 

Most of the hard data relates to changes in fish. I know of no solid human data that says it a risk to females, but that has not been well studied. The D.E.S study has made me a little worried about the fetus and fetal exposure might be, but in fact it's an extremely hard exposure to measure and attempts to do it have not been terribly successful one way or the other.