A dozen physicians and researchers participating in a Food and Drug Administration panel on Thursday pleaded with the agency to “stop harming women” and remove the so-called black box warning from packages containing hormone treatments for menopause.

One after another, the panelists described patients who suffered from severe menopause symptoms — from hot flashes and painful sex to severe mood swings, forgetting names and even suicidal ideation — yet were scared away from estrogen-containing products by the labels.

The panelists were selected by Dr. Marty Makary, the F.D.A. commissioner, who has been an outspoken supporter of hormone therapy, and echoed his belief that the benefits of hormone therapy outweigh any risks.

“I am begging, we are all begging the F.D.A., please remove the black box warning,” said Dr. JoAnn V. Pinkerton, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Virginia Health System and past president of the Menopause Society.

“History got it wrong,” said Dr. Heather Hirsch, who runs a telemedicine practice specializing in menopause care, adding, “We are doing harm in the name of ‘do no harm.’”

All menopause treatments containing the hormone estrogen carry a black box warning that the medication should not be used to prevent cardiovascular disease or dementia, and that it increases the risk of strokes, blood clots and probable dementia.

The label, which also warns of the possibility of breast cancer, is found on the packaging of transdermal patches, gels, sprays, vaginal inserts and oral medications, regardless of formulation, so long as they contain estrogen.

But proponents like Dr. Makary say there’s evidence that hormone therapy — approved for the treatment of symptoms like hot flashes — may prevent cognitive decline, heart disease and some cancers with long-term use, in addition to conferring benefits that are not in dispute, like reducing osteoporosis-related fractures.

But, supporters say, the treatment must be initiated within 10 years of the onset of menopause.

Dr. Makary has dismissed findings of a heightened risk of breast cancer in women who took combined estrogen and progestin, saying the research caused a “breast cancer scare” that has deterred women from getting a useful treatment.

“When a woman starts estrogen or estrogen and progesterone within 10 years of the onset of menopause, there is somewhere between roughly a 25 and 50 percent reduction in fatal heart attacks and cardiovascular disease,” Dr. Makary said at the opening of the meeting. “That is comparable to or greater than the risk reduction of a statin.”

Yet women were being denied the treatment, he said: “Fifty-million-plus women have not been offered the incredible potential health benefits of hormone therapy.”

The treatment has become the focus of intense debate. Some researchers argue that a landmark trial carried out more than 20 years ago, called the Women’s Health Initiative, might have exaggerated hormone therapy’s harms, dissuading physicians from prescribing it and leaving patients without relief.

Other advocates for women’s health contend there are risks to long-term use that are now being trivialized.

Several such advocates attended the panel meeting, even though there was no opportunity for members of the public to speak or to question panelists. They wore buttons that said “I ♥︎ W.H.I.” and “Let the public comment.”

In the middle of the meeting, Cindy Pearson, who played a leading role in obtaining funding for the W.H.I. decades ago, stood up and asked Dr. Makary if there would be any public input on the F.D.A. decision regarding the label.

He was noncommittal, saying that public comment sessions take time and that he wanted to act quickly.

After the meeting, Ms. Pearson criticized the composition of the panel, saying it was unbalanced and one-sided, with no one voicing any concern or hesitation about removing the label.

There was no scientific presentation by F.D.A. scientists, who typically testify at advisory committee meetings on new drugs and who are expert in analyzing drug safety data.

The panel convened by Dr. Makary included four physicians who are members of Let’s Talk Menopause, an advocacy group supported by Pfizer, Bayer and other pharmaceutical companies that has called for removing the black box warning from local vaginal estrogen products used to treat dryness and sexual symptoms.

Several panelists run exclusive practices that don’t accept insurance and charge high fees. (Dr. Hirsch charges $1,450 for a first in-person appointment.)

“This panel was set up by Dr. Makary to give him public reason to take the next step forward, using a mix of cherry-picked data, old citations and personal anecdotes to defend his conclusion that hormone therapy would be good for almost every woman who goes through menopause,” Ms. Pearson said after the meeting.

Asked about the panel’s makeup, Dr. Makary said in a brief hallway interview that “others were invited,” but he offered no more detail.

He would not say what his next steps were going to be, or whether the black box warning label might be removed from all estrogen products, including oral products, or only from vaginal creams that are applied locally.

“We need to look at all of it,” Dr. Makary said.

Some of his arguments in favor of hormone therapy are based on observational studies, a weaker form of evidence than randomized controlled clinical trials. But Dr. Makary said, “Observational studies can be very powerful if the effect size is very dramatic.”

The Women’s Health Initiative, the largest randomized controlled trial on hormone therapy, was created because observational studies had repeatedly and consistently linked hormone therapy to long-term health benefits for women.

Its findings came as a shock to most medical experts.

The branch of the trial studying combined estrogen and progesterone was halted abruptly in 2002 because of signs of an increase in breast cancer and overall health risks, though the danger to individual women was very small, especially for women in early menopause.

Two years later, the branch studying menopausal women taking estrogen alone was halted a year early because participants were at increased risk of stroke. (Combined estrogen and progestin was also linked to increased stroke risk.)

There was no increase in breast cancer with estrogen alone, and the hormone lowered heart attack risk in women in their 50s, according to Dr. JoAnn E. Manson, a professor at Harvard Medical School who was a lead investigator of the Women’s Health Initiative.

She attended remotely and had another panelist present comments for her.

She said in an interview that a related study suggested estrogen alone or with progestin might raise the odds of cognitive impairment and dementia when started after age 65.

Critics have raised questions about the design of the W.H.I., saying that some of the risks it documented were of borderline significance, and that women who wanted to reap the benefits of hormone treatment should initiate it soon after the onset of menopause.

The idea is “magical thinking — they hope it’s true,” said Dr. Jacques Rossouw, a former head of the W.H.I. He was in the audience Thursday, though he was not asked to be on the panel.

New hormone formulations have come on the market since the W.H.I. trials were halted. Some physicians believe these products are safer, but they have not been tested in large randomized controlled clinical trials.

Oral estrogen and combined estrogen and progestin were tested in the W.H.I. because those were the most common forms of hormone therapy in the early 1990s, and “those were the formulations that were showing many benefits in the observational studies,” Dr. Manson said.

She noted in an interview that there are “major differences” between hormone pills and a product that delivers low doses vaginally to relieve dryness or prevent urinary tract infections, and that there are differences between taking estrogen orally and taking it via transdermal patches, gels or sprays.

“The problem is there are no large-scale randomized trials,” she said, referring to the transdermal and vaginal treatments.

Treatment should be individualized, Dr. Manson added. Oral estrogen alone may lower the risk of breast cancer, for example, but it should be taken only by women who have undergone hysterectomies because it can cause uterine cancer.