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# Chinese medicine comparable to HRT for menopause symptoms?
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/hrt_chinese_medicine_1010120745/
- Published: 2012-10-10T08:43:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T16:05:15.000Z
- Description: In a trial of 31 women, a Traditional Chinese Medicine preparation improved hot flashes and night sweats by 30 percent, the same as placebo, while hormone replacement therapy improved them by 50 percent. Researchers reported no qualitative improvement in patients' quality of life.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Drug, Health News, #vivvo-import

By Jimmy Downs

Wednesday Oct 10, 2012 ([foodconsumer.org](http://www.foodconsumer.org/)) -- A study in Maturitas suggests that a Chinese medicine preparation may be used as an alternative to hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to help women who experience menopause symptoms like hot flashes and night sweats.

HRT has been found associated with increased risk of heart disease and breast cancer in a major study, prompting clinicians to terminate the study prematurely. For that reason, much of an effort has been made to find alternative treatments for the menopause symptoms that bother some percentage of women at menopause.

S.H. Kwee of Private Clinics in Amsterdam & The Hague, The Netherlands and colleagues tested the Traditional Chinese Medicine preparation - CHM formulae in a small trial and found CHM formula improved menopause symptoms including hot flashes and night sweats by 30 percent. In contrast, HRT improved the symptoms by 50 percent. But overall, there was no qualitative improvement in patients' life.

 The trial involved 31 subjects experiencing menopause symptoms and 10 women were assigned CHM, 11 hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and 10 a placebo for 12 weeks plus 4 weeks of non-treatment follow-up.

During the trial, frequency of vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes and night sweats) were monitored as the primary outcomes and improvement in quality of life and other symptoms and sign related to peri- and postmenopausal period were also registered as the secondary outcomes.

The placebo group experienced a 30% improvement. Compared to the placebo , the Traditional Chinese Medicine preparation CHM was found to be 29 percent more effective in reducing hot flashes where HRT was almost 50 percent more effective.

The researchers also found "Although quantitatively there was a significant difference in the reduction of hot flushes between groups, "HRT, CHM and placebo", qualitatively there was no overall improvement."

The trial suggests that women who were reluctant to use HRT may consider using the Traditional Chinese medical CHM to help hem relieve hot flashes and night sweats etc. But a large trial needs to be carried out to confirm the efficacy.