For women who have struggled with the symptoms of menopause but are fearful of taking risky hormone pills, there is at last a bit of hope.
Hormone skin patches and gels, it seems, are far less likely than pills to cause dangerous blood clots.

At least that was the finding from a recently published French study.
Patches and gels are already known to be effective for relieving the hot flashes and sleep-interrupting night sweats that plague many women. No one knows whether they will prove safer than pills in terms of breast cancer, heart attack or stroke risk. A large study currently under way may answer that.

But if they do, it may soften some of the backlash against hormones since a landmark study in 2002 frightened many women away from their use. Critics of that study have long contended that it is the type of estrogen or progestin, the dosage, and the method of taking the hormones that may affect the health risks.