Herbal Remedies for Menopause
Hormone replacement used to be the norm for women seeking relief from menopausal symptoms, but some women are put off by possible contraindications and published studies suggesting hormone replacement therapy isn’t the best route to take. Other women may prefer a more holistic approach in everything they do, and menopause is no different for them. For women looking to alleviate some of their uncomfortable menopausal symptoms there are plenty of herbal remedies available on the market.
There hasn’t been a lot of research conducted regarding the effects of herbal remedies on menopausal symptoms, and the majority of studies that have been done involved women who had breast cancer. This can make it difficult for a woman trying to make an informed decision about herbal remedies to find accurate data. Furthermore, it is important to note that the Food and Drug Administration do not hold herbal remedies to the same standard as traditional medications, and in fact the FDA considers herbal supplements to be in the same category as food. So while there are regulations in place, they are nowhere near as strict as the regulations set forth for over-the-counter and prescription medicines. This is why it is so incredibly important to discuss with your doctor any herbal remedy you are considering taking. Herbal remedies can have side effects and contraindications just like traditional medicines, and your doctor is the best resource to find out what is best for your particular situation.
As far as what little research has been done, there are indeed certain herbal remedies that appear to give relief for menopausal symptoms. For hot flashes, soy isoflavones, black cohosh, and red clover all seem to help some women, although the results of the studies sometimes yielded inconsistent results. Other herbal remedies, such as dong quai, evening primrose oil, ginseng, vitamin E, and wild yam were recognized in the studies as being commonly used for hot flashes, but with not much data available to support their effectiveness.
Herbal supplement suppliers assure that their products can ease menopausal discomforts just as effectively, if not more so, than traditional medicinal methods. One site goes so far to proudly proclaim that their product, a derivative of the maca herb, can offer balance to a menopausal woman with regards to hot flashes, loss of sexual desire, and other symptoms of menopause. In a somewhat perplexing statement, though, they also claim that the maca herb raises levels of fertility in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women