Menopause: Hormone Replacement Therapy

Introduction

Menopause is known as the transition from the reproductive to the non-reproductive life of women and it is mainly represented by the loss of menstruation. During the menopause stage, the production of hormone decreases and certain negative symptoms, such as hot flashes, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and urogenital atrophy, appear. Therefore, for more than 6 decades, menopausal women have been treated with hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to increase their hormonal production level and decrease the menopausal symptoms. However, studies found out that HRT presents side effects, such as increase the risk of blood clotting, stroke and breast cancer, which make us rethink its effectiveness for all women. The purpose of this

The benefit of HRT at short-term is the relief of symptoms, such as hot flashes, night sweats, palpitation, headaches and lower urinary tract problems, depression, sleep difficulties, mood changes and psychological symptoms (low concentration, difficulty to make a decision, deficiency of memory and loss of confidence). One of the most important long-term benefits of HRT is the prevention of osteoporosis and the fractures in elderly women by helping to the bone strength (as shown in Figure 2 below) which is affected due to woman's body produces less estrogen during and after menopause. Another benefit of long-term HRT is to decrease risk of cardiovascular diseases; this is argued by Swartz (1992) who states that estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) reduced by 50% the incidents of cardiovascular disease. As shown in Figure 3 below, estrogen reduces the plasma levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and increase the plasma levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), reducing the probability of heart diseases. Although the benefits of hormone replacement are numerous and significant for women’s life style, there are some side effects that should be considered before start the

Hormone replacement therapy is used to relieve symptoms of menopause, to relief osteoporosis and to avoid urogenital atrophy and it can be applied by via oral, transdermal, injection, subdermal implants and vaginal preparations. The benefit of short-term HRT is the relief of symptoms, such as hot flashes, night sweats, palpitations, headaches and lower urinary tract problems, depression, sleep difficulties, mood changes and psychological symptoms, while the benefits of long-term were the prevention of osteoporosis and cardiovascular diseases. The disadvantages were minor side effects, such as headaches, nausea, fluid retention, acne, condolences stomach and breast pain, and serious side effects, such as increase the risk of developing breast cancer, endometrial cancer, ovarian cancer, stroke, hypertension, thromboembolism and gallbladder diseases. Although hormone replacement therapy is the only treatment against the symptoms of menopause, it needs to be controlled due to the numerous disadvantages that HRT treatment could bring with short and long-term usage. In the future, it would be good to start looking for other healthier alternatives for women who do not need urgent treatment. Moreover, it is important to warn women that use HRT about all the risks of the