USA Today on Thursday examined how some physicians are questioning the regimen of combination estrogen and progestin hormone replacement therapy after the release of studies indicating that the hormone progestin, combined with estrogen in postmenopausal women, might increase the risks of some conditions (Rubin, USA Today, 4/13). NIH researchers in July 2002 ended an agency-funded Women's Health Initiative study on combination HRT three years early because they determined that the treatment might increase the risk for heart disease, invasive breast cancer and other health problems (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 2/21). However, a WHI study published in the April 12 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that estrogen-only HRT in women whose uteruses have been removed does not raise women's risk of developing breast cancer after seven years of treatment. Physicians since the 1970s have known that postmenopausal women who take estrogen have an increased risk of developing endometrial cancer, so they only give the hormone to women who have had hysterectomies, USA Today reports. Another study, published in the April 10 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, finds that estrogen-only HRT raises women's risk of developing blood clots, though not as much as combination HRT does, according to USA Today. FDA currently advises women to take as low a dose of estrogen as needed to relieve postmenopausal symptoms. "When you use a lower dose of estrogen, you can also use a lower dose of progestin," Susan Johnston, an OB/GYN at the University of Iowa who is not affiliated with WHI, said, adding, "That probably reduces that risk even further." Jacques Rossouw, a project officer for WHI, said the likely best solution for postmenopausal women who are apprehensive about the risks of HRT with progestin is to use a product such as an intrauterine device that delivers the hormone directly to the uterus (USA Today, 4/13).