Remedy for Menopause

The end of menstruation is celebrated in some cultures and matriarchal women of advanced age are honored and revered for their knowledge and wisdom.

European and American woman customarily reach menopause (on average) at age 51. Some women may reach menopause earlier or later than this.

Perimenopausal, pre menopausal, and early menopausal woman reach menopause earlier than this and in some instances, significantly so. Women diagnosed as early menopausal can display signs of menopause as early as age 25, though this is a rarity.

While there is not remedy for menopause there are remedies for the associative symptoms congruent with menopause. Women of menopausal age are frequently encumbered with a variety of irritating and in some cases, life-altering symptoms. It is these symptoms, not menopause itself that can be treated.

The efficacy, safety and effectiveness of the various types of remedy for menopause treatments vary wildly. The range of effectiveness and safety starts from what one might expect from a placebo all the way to life-threatening, and everything in-between.

The search for a truly safe and effective remedy for menopause symptoms can be an up-hill arduous one, fraught with frustration and real danger.

The most well known and risk laden of all remedy for menopause treatments ever devised to assuage symptoms associated with menopause is known as hormone replacement therapy, or simply HRT. With its introduction in the mid-60s, women everywhere and the worldwide medical community embraced its use. It was then and is now among the most effective at reducing common symptoms associated with menopause, including hot flashes and night sweats. Early clinical research showed a minimum 70% reduction in the frequency and veracity of these symptoms once the remedy for menopause treatment plan was initiated.

HRT was originally formulated using female equine urine. Horses urinate in copious volumes and so, it is easier to distillate, formulate and extract oestorgens using this process.

While originally considered to be a God-send, HRT soon began to be associated with life-threatening health risks within a decade of its introduction. Within this same timeframe however, the incidences of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and heart disease skyrocketed.

Clinical trials were conducted early on using women of perimenopausal and menopausal age to determine if there were any associations between HRT and the alarming increases in the number of life-threatening health risks.

Following years of clinical research involving hundreds of test patients, HRT was determined to have an unquestioned link to heart disease, arterial diseases, as well as breast and endrometrial cancers.

With the overwhelming evidence at hand, why is it that physicians sworn to uphold the Hippocratic Oath (first, do no harm) continue to promote HRT, nearly a half-century later. This is a question that all women faced with this conundrum should ask their physicians.

HRT is still the most recommended remedy for menopause symptoms due to the fact that scientific research has yet to device a safer or more effective treatment plan. In much the same way that chemotherapy and radiation are still in use to treat cancer, HRT is still in use due to the fact that it is the best bad treatment available.

Unfortunately, money conspires at the root of the problem. All of the major medical affiliations and organizations support the use of HRT. This stamp of approval may lend an air of legitimacy to the use of HRT, but it certainly doesn't make it any safer. Large medical insurance companies co-op the use of HRT by insuring physicians, hospitals and clinics against malpractice claims.

With all of the controversy surrounding the efficacy of HRT, research has focused on bio-identicals. To date, no clear evidence exists that would indicate that bio-identicals are any safer or less problematic than HRT.

From the time that the problems associated with HRT were first identified, the term alternative treatment began to be bandied about. The term alternative treatment is misleading in that it gives one the impression that the new or opposing treatment is safer or more effective than the original. However it should be noted that while brimstone might be construed as an alternative to fire, it in itself is just as deadly.

Overall, modern women (especially of advanced age) need to be acutely aware of remedy for menopause symptoms available to them. They are encourage to not necessary embrace the first options offered by the medical community. Research is the best method of preparedness.