The key study was that of Dorgan et al. (1994), in which 51 postmenopausal women underwent 8-week periods of drinking either 15 g of ethanol/day, 30 g of ethanol /day, or a placebo alcohol-free beverage. The order of the three drinking periods was chosen at random for each woman. The study participants agreed to consume only those foods and alcohol supplied to them by the study coordinators. In addition, body weights of all the participants were obtained weekly, and the caloric content of the diets adjusted to maintain body weight within a set range throughout the study. At the end of each 8 week exposure period, blood was collected for assay of steroid hormone levels.
