Soy Supplements Effective for Menopausal Symptoms - study

Natural remedy - soy supplements

Estrogen-based HRT is not the only thing women may use to overcome menopausal symptoms. One trial published in the Sep 10, 2010 issue of Maturitas found soy supplements and hormone therapy equally significantly 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 either 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, both the soy isoflavone supplement and the hormone therapy improved somatic symptoms such as hot flashes and muscle pain by 49.8 percent and 45.6 percent respectively and improved urogenital symptoms (vaginal 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."

Doctors still prescribe high dose HRT to postmenopausal women

A new study led by Stanford University researchers shows doctors are still prescribing high doses of hormones to postmenopausal women even though use of the hormone replacement therapy or HRT has overall dropped more than 50 percent since 2001.

Estrogen-based HRT has been found in 2002 in a major study known as the Women's Health Initiative Study to boost a number of diseases including ovarian cancer, breast cancer, stroke, and heart disease among others. The findings prompted researchers to terminate the study earlier than planned.

Hormone replacement therapy is commonly given to women who are experiencing menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes, low energy, sleep problems, and vaginal dryness and bone loss etc.  These symptoms are non-pathological, meaning that they result from a natural aging process, but not from a disease.

Dr. Randall Stafford of Stanford University and colleagues examined data from 340,820 patient visits to hospitals, clinics and doctors' office and found use of HRT fell by 52 percent to 8.3 million users in 2009 from 17.5 million users in 2001.

Use of low dose HRT, which is considered safer than the standard dose oral HRT, was found to increase to 1.3 million users in 2009 from 700,000 in 2001, according to the study published in Menopause: The Journal of the North American menopause Society.

But the researchers also found doctors still gave patients high dose HRT.

HRT boosts breast cancer risk

Another study published in the Oct 6, 2010 issue of Journal of the National Cancer Institute suggests that use of HRT boosts risk of developing breast cancer in women aged 50 to 69.

De P. and colleagues from Canadian Cancer Society said in their study report that the decline in use of hormone replacement therapy was associated with a decrease in breast cancer incidence in several countries.

Their study was intended to determine whether similar declines occurred in Canada.

For the study, the researchers looked at data on prescriptions for HRT from a national registry to confirm the reported trend in HRT use among about 1,200 women aged 50 to 59 who participated in a health survey between 1996 and 2006.

They found use of HRT decreased from 12.7 percent 2002 to 4.9 percent in 2004 among women aged 50 to 69.  During the same period, the incidence rate of breast cancer dropped 9.6 percent.

The change in the breast cancer incidence did not seem to have nothing to do with mammography screening as the mammography rates were stable at 72 percent over the same period.

The researchers concluded "During the period 2002-2004, there was a link between the declines in the use of hormone replacement therapy and breast cancer incidence among Canadian women aged 50-69 years, in the absence of any change in mammography rates."

David Liu