Definitely look into the natural ways you can help alleviate these symptoms first.
However, if you give all those things a good try and feel that your menopause symptoms are interfering with your life too much, then I think the HRT is worth seriously considering.
It's your body and only you can make the decision, but unless you test high for the breast cancer gene that Auriel mentions above, I personally think it may be worth it if your symptoms are debilitatingly bad. Now, what that means is for you to decide as well, but hot flashes and brain fog and so on are all normal, and in most women those will go away within months or at the most a couple of years. If you are just starting out with menopause, give it time to see how bad those symptoms really are.
The most recent scientific studies are saying that HRT only increases your risk of breast cancer by a small percentage, and that the benefits outweigh the risk. I read an article in the NYT magazine just this week about this. The result of the study is explained this way:
"Women between the ages of 50 and 60 have about a 2.33% chance of developing breast cancer. Taking HRT may increase that chance by around 26%, which would raise the risk level to 2.94%." Once you see the way those numbers and percentages actually work, they are a lot less alarming.
I personally would avoid HRT if possible because I simply avoid medications when possible. But I knew someone who lived for years with truly debilitating menopause symptoms that simply did not quit once the usual menopause period was over. Finally in desperation she went on HRT and her life changed for the better. She said she wished she had done it sooner.
Bottom line: information is power, and the more you inform yourself with good, real scientific findings on the subject (as opposed to scare stories on the internet), the better equipped you will be to make this decision. Best of luck!
) there'll probably be more members on soon to give more advice to help with it 
