1.   But Scheuer said many women find ovary removal more difficult than mastectomy because it plunges them into menopause, complete with its unpleasant symptoms.

2.   The answer will come, she said, with long-term studies of women who have already undergone preventive mastectomies and ovary removals.

3.   Ovary removal may help guard against breast cancer because it curbs production of estrogen, which encourages tumor growth.

4.   But ovary removal induces menopause, which could put young women at risk for early development of brittle bones and heart disease.

5.   The new research raises the possibility that ovary removal alone may be a reasonable option for avoiding both kinds of cancer.