Do Alternative Therapies Treat Menopause Symptoms?

Turning to complementary and alternative therapies to treat hot flashes, night sweats and other symptoms of menopause may waste your time.

Doctors at Oregon Health and Science University say they cannot find evidence the therapies relieve menopausal symptoms, which will affect 25 million women during the next 10 years.

"Because many women are using alternative and complementary therapies to treat their symptoms, often without telling their physicians, additional rigorous studies are needed to identify which of these treatments are safe and effective," the researchers say.

Turning to alternative therapies

While 40 percent of women seek medical attention for their menopausal complaints, many doctors and patients are seeking other treatment options after a large clinical research project on hormone therapy was halted abruptly because of an increased risk of breast cancer.

Dr. Anne Nedrow, a researcher with Oregon Health and Science University, says she reviewed 70 studies of alternative and complementary therapies, including:

vitamins;
proteins;
diets;
meditation and other mind-body therapies;
osteopathic manipulation;
reflexology;
magnet therapy;
traditional Chinese medicine;
ayurvedic medicine, a traditional therapy from India that includes yoga.

Although some therapies did bring benefits, Nedrow says, the overall quality and quantity of the information was insufficient for her team to make treatment recommendations. Plus, she added, many of the studies contradicted each other.

For example, one study showed black cohosh, the root of a native North American shrub, did improve several menopause-related symptoms, but three others said the alternative treatment was useless for hot flashes.

The 'placebo effect'

Furthermore, many students produced large "placebo effects." In a typical research project, participants are divided into two groups for comparison's sake: people in one group will get the actual medicine, while the other group will take fake pills, or "placebos." They won't know which ones they're taking.

If the medicine being tested is any good at relieving symptoms, then results from the placebo group should be far below the medical group. However, with the alternative and complementary treatments, women who unknowingly took fake estrogen pills reported a 50-percent improvement in the frequency of their hot flashes - a finding that raised major red flags for researchers.

In fact, "the placebo effect likely plays an important role in the expanding number of dietary supplements marketed to menopausal women," Nedrow says.

'Women value partnerships'

She and her team encourage you to talk openly with your doctors about menopause symptoms and tell their physicians about all medicines - prescriptions and otherwise - you're taking.

"Women value partnership, choice and shared decision making," the researchers say. "Because there is no universal menopausal presentation or treatment, it is essential that health care professionals provide accurate information and options for midlife women."