Russell S. Kirby, PhD, MS, FACE

Department of Maternal and Child Health

School of Public Health

University of Alabama at Birmingham

Birmingham, Alabama

ABSTRACT: Considerable controversy surrounds the use of hormone replacement therapy [HRT] for treatment of peri-menopausal symptoms. Recent publications from three large, prospective randomized studies call the safety of HRT into question, and leave patients searching for answers.

Nutrient therapy may provide symptomatic relief without increasing risk of chronic disease. In this study, results of a series of uncontrolled prospective studies of peri-menopausal symptom relief using Menopace® nutrient therapy were combined to provide a broad perspective on the safety and effectiveness of this alternative treatment modality.

Data from seven studies with a total of 766 subjects were analyzed. Subjects with specific menopausal symptoms reported improvement after three months of daily use of the therapy, ranging from 87.8% of subjects with hot flashes to 67.5% of subjects with poor concentration reporting

improvement.

Overall improvement in menopausal symptoms was reported in 93.2% of all subjects. These results provide consistent evidence of the effectiveness of comprehensive, nutritionally balanced nutrient therapy for treatment of menopausal symptoms. While most evidence-based practitioners focus primarily on research results from randomized, controlled clinical trials, other forms of research evidence can also guide clinicians for safe and effective treatment options for their patients. Int J Fertil 51[3]:125-129, 2006.

 KEY WORDS: menopause, nutrient therapy, evidence-based practice, and uncontrolled prospective studies

AS LIFE EXPECTANCY INCREASES and the population grows throughout the world, more women not only are reaching the age of menopause and living well beyond it, but are also demanding a higher quality of life during these later life stages. Whereas menopause is not a disease per se in any sense of the word, it does represent a natural biological process in the human female [1], which is often associated with a range of unpleasant physiological occurrences. In the past, most women put up with the vicissitudes of menopausal changes, believing that there was little that they could do to alleviate them.

With the advent of prototype hormonal replacement therapy in the 1960s, however, many women were initially offered estrogen, and later, combinations of estrogen and progesterone, to alleviate the numerous annoying symptoms of this stage of life. Alone or combined, these two hormonal agents became known to medical professionals and the lay public as hormone replacement therapy [HRT].

Recently, HRT has been called into question, most notably through the initial publication and subsequent interpretations of the American Women’s Health Initiative study [WHI], the Heart and Estrogen/ Progestin Replacement Study (HERS/ HERS II), and the British Million Women Study [2,3,4].

The immediateness of the response of clinicians and gynecological professional societies to published results from these studies was not unexpected. This, coupled with a worldwide medical coverage that was little less than sensationalistic, resulted in a dramatic decline in the use of hormonal therapies for women during and after menopause.

With time for reflection, the appropriateness of this ‘rejection response’ has been called into serious question, not only in the United States, but in the United Kingdom as well [5,6,7]. As this debate continues and secondary analyses and counter analyses of these studies continue to appear, many women are bewildered by this conflict and appropriately ask their health care providers what  non-hormonal alternatives might be available to provide relief from the symptoms of menopause. This basic question has resulted in an enormous outpouring of interest in the literature, much of which is related to the discipline of alternative medicine, an area of medicine now so vast that is cannot be addressed in this review.