It's an inevitable truth: as we get older, our muscles deteriorate and we become weaker. Not only can this be an immensely frustrating change, but it can also have many other, more serious implications.

Good social support and reliable information are essential for women who find menopause an intense and life-altering experience, especially if they live in rural areas where health services are patchy or inaccessible. That’s the key finding from research published in the latest issue of the Journal of Advanced Nursing.

Menopausal women are at relatively high risk for memory loss, high blood pressure (hypertension) and diabetes. A decade ago, the standard treatment for these problems was long-term hormone replacement therapy (HRT).

In women, hormone therapy is a risk factor for venous thrombosis, a blood clot forming deep inside the vein. Despite the fact that the disorder is rare, it increases exponentially during menopause and can be deadly. The hormone trials conducted thus far, focusing on proteins in blood coagulation, have not yet led to a risk profile, thereby precluding identification of women at risk.

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a division of Wyeth (NYSE:WYE), provides comment on the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) Coronary Artery Calcium Study published today in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). The study found that younger menopausal women (aged 50-59) who received a standard dose of oral conjugated estrogens had significantly less coronary artery calcification at the end of the study period compared with those taking placebo.