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Medical Letter agrees there is no evidence that the hormones can cause cancer. In fact, there seems to be evidence that they guard against it. Harvard's Dr. Robert Kistner believes that the progestins may be useful in treating endometrial cancer. The University of Chicago's Dr. M. Edward Davis has been giving estrogens for 25 years to women who have suffered an "instant menopause" from hysterectomy, and has had not one case of genital cancer among these patients.
Though Dr. Wilson has been the most articulate, he has not been the only investigator of hormone replacement. Dr. William H. Masters, St. Louis' scholar of sexual responses (TIME, Jan. 7), has tried estrogens, progestins, and testosterone (the principal male sex hormone) in various combinations. He believes that hormone prescriptions should be tailored to the individual patient, and though his own methods differ from Wilson's, Dr. Masters welcomes Feminine Forever because he believes it will focus attention on a problem that the medical profession has too generally ignored.