When Pamela Forrester went to her doctor in 1994 complaining of menopausal symptoms -- hot flashes and trouble sleeping -- she didn't think twice when he told her to start taking hormone replacement drugs, she testified Monday. 

Her doctor never mentioned risks of breast cancer associated with the drugs and she didn't ask, she said in a civil trial against the drug maker Wyeth. She trusted him, Forrester, 64, said.

"He obviously didn't have the information" about the risks, Forrester said of her doctor. "I'm sure he would have told me."

And when Jeraldine Scofield, 73, approached the menopause phase, she was advised that hormone therapy drugs would help prevent osteoporosis, she testified.

"What risks did the drugs have?" asked Zoe Littlepage, one of the women's lawyers.

"As far as I know, they didn't have any," Scofield said.

But years later, after a mammogram identified a lump in Forrester's breast and Scofield had a mastectomy, the women made the connection between taking the hormone replacement drugs and their cancer.

Forrester of Yerington, Scofield of Fallon and a third woman, Arlene Rowatt, 67, of Incline Village, are suing Wyeth, claiming its hormone replacement drugs Premarine, an estrogen drug, and Prempro, a combination estrogen and progestin pill, caused their disease.

The lawsuit also contends Wyeth produced a dangerous product, failed to test the drugs and failed to adequately warn of their risks.

The trial in Washoe District Court is entering its third week. The women's lawyers are expected to finish their case today, with Wyeth lawyers presenting their side Wednesday.

Wyeth lawyers have told the jury the company supplied risk information with every bottle of pills prescribed and provided risk information to the doctors. They also said it was not possible to make a link between the drugs and the cancer, and said the women had other risk factors that could have led to their cancer.

Forrester started taking Premarine and a progestin pill in 1994, she said, but was taken off it in 2002, but was not told why. In 2004, a mammogram found a growth and she had it surgically removed, she said. After undergoing radiation for six weeks, the cancer was gone, she said.

Cathy Cochran, a Wyeth lawyer, pointed out to Forrester that there was information about the breast cancer risks available to her in the drug's packaging, but she did not read it.

"You made a choice to trust Dr. Avery. You made a choice to not read the label," Cochran said. "But you're here today because you were not told something."

Cochran asked Scofield similar questions.

"Throughout the time you took the medications, you didn't think you had any risks? No doctor even told you that?" Cochran asked.

"That's right," Scofield said.

"Did you ask about the risks?" Cochran asked.

"I expected if there were risks, they would have told me," Scofield said.

"Your physicians didn't show you information it appeared that they had," Cochran said.