I think we should have lowered expectations of what a lifestyle intervention trial can show over a relatively short period of time. Against a climate of less research funding overall, it's going to be harder to do these kinds of trials in the future.

That is a pretty clear signal that there is still something here. I'm hopeful that we will show significant results as we follow these women longer.

This study shows that just reducing total fat intake does not go far enough to have an impact on heart disease risk.

These are secondary analyses and are exploratory to some extent.

These findings are reassuring for women who want to use these hormones around the age of menopause in the short term for the relief of symptoms.

We set out to test a promising but unproven hypothesis that has proven to be less promising than we anticipated. This is the nature of science: to have incremental gains and setbacks. We have a duty as scientists to put the best information out there at any given time, even if it can become confusing.

I can see how a lot of women might be confused. People would like very clear results with a very clear health message, and, unfortunately, these results are not very clear.

Based on our findings, we cannot recommend that most women should follow a low-fat diet.