Menopause Symptoms

How many forests have been chopped down to provide the paper for all of those menopause articles you’ve read? Well here are another couple of trees!

Menopause is a natural process of maturing. Until about five years ago, estrogen replacement therapy was the gold standard for treating menopause symptoms. It helps almost everything: swelling, hot flashes, skin dryness, emotional fluctuation, cramps, sexual dysfunction, weight gain and osteoporosis. Unfortunately, analysis of data on thousands of women showed a slight but significant increase in the incidents of strokes and heart attack in women receiving estrogen therapy compared to women taking no supplement. Eight more women per 10,000 will have these events.

Because of these findings, the medical community recommends using alternatives to estrogen replacement therapy whenever possible. A reasonable approach is to address only the symptoms that are bothering you. For example, if hot flashes are the main problem black cohash and a number of other herbal supplements are available to treat these. Likewise, if emotional fluctuations are the main problem, you may be best treated by a prescription product. As is often the case, proper diet, exercise and sufficient water intake can help minimize the physical transition of menopause.