Relaxation for Hot Flashes
Posted by on November 1, 2013 - 12:49pm

Hot flashes: most menopausal women have them, and all menopausal women hate them. For one in ten women, hot flashes occur for five years or longer, signicantly affecting multiple aspects of their lives including relationships and sleep. While hormone replacement therapy has largely addressed the issue of hot flashes in many women, other women have sough alternatives. Alternatives including yoga, acupuncture, exercise, and applied relaxation have all been helpful in women undergoing menopause.

Applied relaxation, in particular, has recently been studied in a small Swedish pilot study and proven to be beneficial. 60 women were divided into two groups: one was given relaxation exercises  to practice daily at home, and the other received no treatment whatsoever. After three months the treatment group lowered their number of hot flushes per day from an average of 9.1 to 4.4. The control group also noticed a decrease in hot flashes per day, but only from an average of 9.7 to 7.8.

Relaxation techniques include breathing exercises, guided imagery exercises, and calming music. Consider applying relaxation in replacement of or in addition to your hormone replacement therapy. For more information on how to incorporate relaxation into your therapy for hot flushes, visit our Northwestern menopause website here.

Joint Relief with Estrogen
Posted by on October 19, 2013 - 1:01pm

Hormone therapy can be used to ease the many symptoms of menopause, including night sweats, hot flashes, and mood swings. New research indicates that hormone therapy, specifically estrogen, can also be used towards joint pain.

Estrogen therapy improves joint pain in post-menopausal women who have had a hysterectomy. Studies looking at the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) trial analyzed 10,000+ post-menopausal women. 77% of these women reported join pain and 40% experienced joint swelling. After just one year, frequency of joint pain was lower among women who received estrogen-only therapy, compared to women who were in the placebo group (76.3% s. 79.2%) After three years, the subset of women who received estrogen continued to have joint pain less frequently than the placebo group.

The difference was seen only in women who received estrogen alone, vs. women with intact uteruses who took estrogen-progesterone combination therapy. Regardless, these findings give light to the many potential therapeutic values of estrogen. Post-menopausal women who are thinking about estrogen to alleviate their joint pain should consult their healthcare providers, and they should still follow the lowest dose of estrogen for the shortest amount of time needed to achieve the therapeutic goals desired. To understand more of the potential benefits (and risks) of estrogen or estrogen-progesterone therapy, visit our menopause website here.

50 and Fabulous: New Menopause Website Empowers Women to Combat Menopausal Symptoms
Posted by on June 28, 2013 - 8:32am

Do you have questions about menopause? Are you ever curious about hormone therapy treatments? You’re not alone!  Every year over two million women in America alone enter into menopause, and most have questions.  The Women’s Health Research Institute wants to provide answers with the creation of a new website: menopausenu.org.  This new site is tailored to the needs of women, offering up-to-date information on menopause and symptom management.  The site even offers a personalized “Menopause Self Assessment,” which enables women to evaluate their own symptoms and health status that they can then print out and share with their healthcare providers.

Menopause marks the transition in every woman’s life when menstruation and fertility decline and eventually end.  Menopause symptoms affect women differently, so treatments vary from woman to woman.  The many stages of menopause may seem overwhelming, but women should find comfort in the numerous treatment options developed by leading researchers and clinicians.  Empowering women with educated choices regarding their health provides them with the tools to live longer and stronger in their journey during and after menopause. Click here to learn more about menopause and the different ways you can navigate your menopausal transition.

 

Soy not so 'hot' for menopause symptoms
Posted by on September 7, 2011 - 6:06am

Soy supplements do not help women in menopause, according to the findings of a two-year, $3 million study conducted at the Miller School of Medicine’s Osteoporosis Center. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health to determine if the widely popular product could preserve bone health and ease symptoms in the first years of menopause. The results show that, contrary to popular belief, soy isoflavone supplements neither prevent bone loss nor reduce menopausal symptoms.

The findings of the SPARE Study, which stands for Soy Phytoestrogens As Replacement Estrogen, were published in the August 8 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

“The consumption of soy foods and soy supplements has dramatically increased in the last few years, particularly among women who start taking various over-the-counter products around the time of menopause, believing that these products will provide all the benefits and none of the risks of menopausal hormone therapy,” said Silvina Levis, professor of medicine, director of the Osteoporosis Center, and principal investigator and lead author of the study. “Our study showed that soy phytoestrogen tablets do not provide any benefit, but fortunately do not cause any apparent harm either. The participants had the same rates of bone loss and menopausal symptoms, whether they were taking soy tablets or placebo tablets (sugar pills). The women on the soy tablets actually had more constipation and abdominal bloating.”

The participants, women aged 45 to 60 and within five years of menopause, were randomly assigned, in equal proportions, to receive either daily soy isoflavone tablets or the placebo and were not aware of which they were taking.

The women were followed for two years and underwent a bone density test (DXA) at the beginning and the end of the study to measure the rate of bone loss. The study showed no meaningful difference in the rate of bone loss between those taking the soy tablets and those taking the placebo. Additionally, those women taking the soy supplement reported no measurable improvement in the number or severity of menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes or in vaginal cytology or cholesterol levels.

While the study is not an endorsement of hormone therapy, it objectively demonstrated that women who take soy isoflavone supplements will not enjoy any clinical benefits.

Source:  University of Miami Veritas