Women's Health Project: HRT Interactive

About this site: The decision to take hormone replacement therapy is never an easy one to make. And with personal factors like lifestyle, diet, and medical history to consider, it's often a bewildering process. Use this interactive questionnaire from the Women's Health Project to help you weigh the pros and cons of this important choice. (http://www.whealth.org/exhibit/prevention/hrtquestions/hrt.cgi)

Pluses: In each question, you can click a "help" button for more information on an unfamiliar topic.

Minuses: Results are impersonal and not explained clearly.

Best feature: The questionnaire simplifies many of the complicated issues surrounding the decision to take HRT.

Menopause Online

About this site: Do you want to know the prices of different hormone replacement tablets or learn about the benefits of herbs and massage? Menopause Online explores common health problems that arise during menopause and the medical and alternative methods available to treat them. (http://www.menopause-online.com/)

Pluses: Nice mix of mainstream and alternative approaches; many articles written by doctors.

Minuses: News page isn't updated on regular basis.

Best feature: Share advice and information with other women going through menopause on the bulletin boards.

Power Surge

About this site: For women in menopause, this is a good place to get a boost. Devised as an on-line community for women, the site has fun artwork, a huge reading room with back issues of the Power Surge newsletter, and bulletin boards where you can hook up with other "Surgettes." (http://www.dearest.com/intro.htm)

Pluses: Hosted chats on AOL; extensive book lists with short reviews and on-line ordering options.

Minuses: Need audio files to play site's background music and avoid error messages on each page.

Best feature: The site hosts regular chats which are all archived.