Current studies being conducted on the effects of menopause patches and gels versus oral hormone-replacement therapy, though still inconclusive, seem to find the patches and gels have much fewer health risks than oral hormone-replacement medications.

The results of an ongoing study being conducted by French researchers has found that postmenopausal women taking an oral estrogen hormone have a 4.2 times greater risk of blood clots than those who are not on estrogen-replacement medications.
Women who use the patch have been found to have a risk of 0.9 times that of women who are not on any hormonal replacement medication, according to the French study.

Many women discontinued using oral hormone-replacement medications after a study published in 2002 showed higher rates of stroke among women taking estrogen and higher rates of both stroke and breast cancer among women taking a combination of estrogen and progestin.
Research conducted so far indicates that women taking hormone skin patches and gels are at far less risk than those taking hormones orally.

However, although the evidence is mounting in favor of patches and gels, the proof is not yet conclusive.