Soy supplements as effective as hormone therapy in easing menopausal symptoms

Dietary soy supplements may be as effective as hormone therapy at easing menopausal symptoms in postmenopausal women, a new study suggests.

The study published in the Sep 10, 2010 issue of Maturitas show both soy isoflavone and hormone therapy equally signfinically improved somatic symptoms like hot flashes and muscle pain in postmenopausal women.

For the double-blind, randomized, controlled trial, Carmignani L.O. and colleagues from Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at State University of Compinas in Brazik assigned sixty postmenopausal women aged 40 to 60 years a dietary soy supplement containing 90 mg of isoflavone and hormone therapy based on 1 mg estradiol and 0.5 mg norethisterone acetate.

At 16 weeks of treatment, the researchers assessed menopausal symptoms including psychological, somatic and urogenital symptoms using the Menopause Rating Scale and they found all the treatments including placebo were equally effective except for urogenital symptoms for which the placebo did not seem to be effective.

Both the soy supplement and the hormone therapy improved somatic symptoms such as hot flashes and msucle pain by 49.8 percent and 45.6 percent respectively and improved urogenital symptoms (viginal dryness) by 31.2 percent and 38.6 percent respectively.

The researchers concluded "Dietary soy supplementation may constitute an effective alternative therapy for somatic and urogenital symptoms of the menopause."

Jimmy Downs