Shortage Of Some Hrt Products
There are ongoing supply problems with some HRT products. For some products this is because of irregular supply while for others it’s a longer-term shortage. There are lots of different reasons why medicines can be in short supply. Work is happening with the pharmaceutical manufacturers who make the medicines to help the situation.
If your pharmacy cant supply the specific HRT product you’ve been prescribed, they may supply an alternative product. This will usually have the same ingredient, but may be made by a different manufacturer. Your pharmacy might also reduce the amount they provide you with to help ensure that as many women as possible can get access to their required medication.
Disruptions in the availability of HRT will be worrying if it has been prescribed for you. However, there are always alternative options. If you are concerned about this, contact your GP, pharmacist or specialist doctor to discuss the best treatment options for you.
How Quickly Can I Expect Results
In clinical trials, Equelle provided menopause symptom relief as early as week 4, with optimal results in 8-12 weeks. Participants receiving Equelle experienced about 5 fewer hot flashes per day at week 8 compared to baseline. After 12 weeks of taking Equelle participants slept 50 minutes more on an average per night vs. 16 minutes more with placebo. After 12 weeks, 92% of participants in an online survey reported they were satisfied with Equelle.
How Do I Change/update My Shipping Or Billing Address On My Account
Login to your account here. Then, select Manage Subscriptions and “Subscriptions” on the left side menu. Here you will see your current subscription and your shipping address listed just above. To update your shipping or billing addresses, simply click “Edit” next to your address. Here you can update either address. Once youre all done, dont forget to hit Save to update your changes.
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Menopause Is Being Mistreated Or Misdiagnosed
As problematic as menopause might be among women, this condition is being mistreated or misdiagnosed with other physiological symptoms.
Many employers are not considering menopause as a trouble that can dramatically reduce womens productivity. Consequently, actions to tackle menopause and assist women, such as creating a support network or implementing a menopause absence policy, are lacking. On the other hand, since various menopause symptoms share similarities with other conditions, such as anxiety or depression, difficulty sleeping or exhaustion, and joint pain or stiffness, menopause is frequently misdiagnosed, resulting in inappropriate treatment.
The same report shows that 28 percent of women had been wrongly offered antidepressants for low mood, anxiety, or depression due to menopause. Still, only eight percent had refused the prescriptions.
Moreover, many women reported that it took their doctors a lot of time to discover that the debilitating symptoms were due to menopause and not something else. Most importantly, menopause is sometimes viewed as a social stigma, as this condition is not taken seriously in the workplace. Male colleagues do not sympathize with their counterparts due to a lack of knowledge about how detrimental menopause can be.
Who Should Not Take Menopausal Hormone Therapy
Menopausal hormone therapy may not be safe for some women. You should discuss your risks with your doctor if you have:2
- A history of heart disease or risk factors, such as high cholesterol
- A family or personal history of breast cancer
- High levels of triglycerides, a type of fat in your blood
- A family history of gallbladder disease
- A history of stroke or blood clots
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Vaginal Atrophy And Dryness
Vaginal atrophy is the clinical term for the thinning of the vaginal wall that happens during menopause in women.
Before menopause, the vaginal wall is bright red, plump and moist. As estrogen levels decrease, it becomes thinner, drier, pale pink to bluish and less elastic. This is a typical shift that many perimenopausal and menopausal women experience.
Other typical vaginal symptoms related to vaginal atrophy comprise vaginal dryness, itching, discomfort or pain during sexual activity . Additionally, vaginal thinning raises the risk of opportunistic infections.
Reducing The Cancer Risks Of Hormone Therapy
If you and your doctor decide that MHT is the best way to treat symptoms or problems caused by menopause, keep in mind that it is medicine and like any other medicine its best to use it at the lowest dose needed for as short a time as possible. And just as you would if you were taking another type of medicine, you need to see your doctor regularly. Your doctor can see how well the treatment is working, monitor you for side effects, and let you know what other treatments are available for your symptoms.
All women should report any vaginal bleeding that happens after menopause to their doctors right away it may be a symptom of endometrial cancer. A woman who takes EPT does not have a higher risk of endometrial cancer, but she can still get it.
Women using vaginal cream, rings, or tablets containing only estrogen should talk to their doctors about follow-up and the possible need for progestin treatment.
For women who have had a hysterectomy , a progestin does not need to be a part of hormone therapy because theres no risk of endometrial cancer. Adding a progestin does raise the risk of breast cancer, so ET is a better option for women without a uterus.
Women should follow the American Cancer Society guidelines for cancer early detection, especially those for breast cancer. These guidelines can be found in Breast Cancer Early Detection.
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Estrogen Therapy And Cancer Risk
Endometrial cancer
In women who still have a uterus, using systemic ET has been shown to increase the risk of endometrial cancer . The risk remains higher than average even after ET is no longer used. Although most studies that showed an increased risk were of women taking estrogen as a pill, women using a patch or high-dose vaginal ring can also expect to have an increased risk of endometrial cancer.
Because of this increased cancer risk, women who have gone through menopause and who still have a uterus are given a progestin along with estrogen. Studies have shown that EPT does not increase the risk for endometrial cancer.
Long-term use of vaginal creams, rings, or tablets containing topical estrogen doses may also increase the levels of estrogen in the body. Its not clear if this leads to health risks, but the amounts of hormone are much smaller than systemic therapies.
Breast cancer
ET is not linked to a higher risk of breast cancer. In fact, certain groups of women taking ET, such as women who had no family history of breast cancer and those who had no history of benign breast disease, had a slightly lower risk of breast cancer.
Ovarian cancer
The WHI study of ET did not report any results about ovarian cancer.
To put the risk into numbers, if 1,000 women who were 50 years old took estrogen for menopause for 5 years, one extra ovarian cancer would be expected to develop.
Colorectal cancer
Lung cancer
ET does not seem to have any effect on the risk of lung cancer.
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Other Mood And Sleep Disorders
Other sleep disorders, such as restless legs syndrome and periodic limb movements disorder, may occur during menopause. These conditions are characterized by involuntary leg motions that induce unpleasant sensations and interrupt sleep.
Depression and anxiety frequently accompany menopausal sleep concerns, which can exacerbate sleep problems. Similarly, sleep deprivation can lead to the onset or worsening of these conditions.
Consecutive Months Without A Period
Once your body has gone a full 12 months without a menstrual cycle, you’ve reached menopause. During this time of hormonal change and lack of a menstrual cycle, a womans ovaries stop releasing eggs and estrogen levels remain low, leading to a wide range of menopausal symptoms that could include:
Stage 3 Postmenopause
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Information For Your Doctor To Read Includes Ams Information Sheets:
If you have any concerns or questions about options to manage your menopausal symptoms, visit your doctor or go to the Find an AMS Doctor service on the AMS website.
NOTE: Medical and scientific information provided and endorsed by the Australasian Menopause Society might not be relevant to an individuals personal circumstances and should always be discussed with their own healthcare provider. This Information Sheet may contain copyright or otherwise protected material. Reproduction of this Information Sheet by Australasian Menopause Society Members, other health professionals and their patients for clinical practice is permissible. Any other use of this information must be agreed to and approved by the Australasian Menopause Society.
Content updated December 2019
Menopause Symptoms: How To Take Charge Of Your Changing Body
Posted on 7 Nov 2022
Are you having night sweats, hot flashes, or brain fog? Read on to discover how to get relief and when its time to seek professional help with managing the perimenopause symptoms.
Physical changes associated with menopause symptoms can begin several years before you have your final period. This transition phase called perimenopause may last 4 to 10 years. It begins with changes in the length of time between periods and ends a year after your final menstrual period. You have then entered menopause. For most women that happens between the ages of 40 and 58. The average age is 51.
Read on to learn more about available treatment options to manage your changing body.
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Types Of Studies Of Hormone Therapy And Cancer Risk
Different types of studies can be used to look at cancer risk from menopausal hormone therapy .
Randomized controlled trials: In this kind of study, a group of patients get the drug being studied , and another group gets a placebo . Results from this kind of study are powerful because which group a patient is in is based on chance. This helps assure that the groups are similar in all ways, such as risk for cancer, except for the drug thats being studied. This is the best way to see the effects of a drug. These types of studies can also be double-blinded, which means neither the people in the study nor their doctors know which group they are in. This lowers the chance that thoughts or opinions about treatment could affect the study results. Unfortunately, these kinds of studies are costly, which limits the number of people in the study, how long the study can continue, and the number of studies done.
A major drawback of observational studies is that the people getting the treatment being studied may have different cancer risk factors than the people who arent. Plus, the treatment can differ between the people being studied. This makes it less clear that the differences seen are only due to the drug being studied and not other factors.
When observational studies and randomized controlled trials have different results, most experts give more weight to the results of the randomized controlled trial.
Does Having Or Not Having A Uterus Make A Difference In Deciding What Type Of Hormone Therapy I Should Take
Yes, it does.
If you still have your uterus:
Progesterone is used along with estrogen. Taking estrogen without progesterone increases your risk for cancer of the endometrium . During your reproductive years, cells from your endometrium are shed during menstruation. When the endometrium is no longer shed, estrogen can cause an overgrowth of cells in your uterus, a condition that can lead to cancer.
Progesterone reduces the risk of endometrial cancer by making the endometrium thin. If you take progesterone, you may have monthly bleeding, or no bleeding at all, depending on how the hormone therapy is taken. Monthly bleeding can be lessened and, in some cases, eliminated by taking progesterone and estrogen together continuously.
If you no longer have your uterus :
You typically won’t need to take progesterone. This is an important point because estrogen taken alone has fewer long-term risks than HT that uses a combination of estrogen and progesterone.
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Systemic Hormone Therapy Before Menopause Is Associated With Depression
Women who receive systemic estrogen and progestin hormone therapy either prior to or during the transition to menopause may have increased risk for depression, according to study results published in JAMA Network Open.
Researchers sourced data for this study from the Danish Civil Registration System. Women who were born in Denmark between 1950 and 1972 were evaluated for a diagnosis of depression at a hospital on the basis of filling 1 or more estrogen with or without progestin HT prescription between 1995 and 2017.
The study cohort comprised women who obtained a middle level of education , had not had a live or still birth in their lifetime , had a history of using hormonal contraceptives , had a history of receiving fertility hormones , had a history of depression , and had a history of postpartum depression .
A total of 23.0% of participants initiated HT during the study period. More of the HT recipients had multiple childbirths, fewer had a history of using hormonal contraceptives or fertility hormones, and fewer had comorbidities compared with nonrecipients.
Stratified by time since initiation, risk for depression was highest during the first year and lowest at 5 or more years . In general, risk for depression was highest for systemic HT and systemic HT with progestin regardless of time since HT initiation.
The major limitation of this study is the lack of access to data about symptoms of menopause and menopausal status.
Can I Take Equelle If I Have/had Breast Cancer
We always recommend consulting with your healthcare professional to ensure you are making the best decision for your body and needs as this is a deeply personal issue. However, Equelle has been clinically studied and shown to be safe. In fact, a report for the American Institute for Cancer Research notes that a moderate amount of soy is considered safe for survivors and may even be beneficial. Only trace amounts of soy compounds remain in the final Equelle product.
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Does Equelle Have Any Efficacy Studies
Yes, three double-blind, randomized clinical trials were conducted. The results support relief from the common symptoms associated with menopause including reducing frequency of hot flashes and vaginal irritation, alleviating mood swings, and supporting quality of sleep. Read our studies here. In addition, Equelle and its active ingredient S-equol have gone through decades of research, development, and multiple clinical studies to determine the safety of the ingredient.
Taking Estrogen With A Progestin Vs Estrogen Alone
Treating menopausal symptoms with estrogen and progestin together is known as estrogen-progestin therapy or combined hormone therapy. Although estrogen alone improves the symptoms of menopause, it increases the risk of cancer of the uterus . Adding a progestin to the estrogen lowers the risk of endometrial cancer back to normal. Because of this, EPT is given to women who still have a uterus . EPT can be given 2 ways:
- Continuous EPT means the same dose of estrogen and progestin is taken each day. Women often prefer continuous EPT because it rarely leads to menstrual-like bleeding.
- Sequential EPT means different amounts of each hormone are taken on specific days. There are different ways to do this. For example, estrogen can be taken by itself for 14 days, then estrogen plus progestin for 11 days, then neither hormone for 3 to 5 days. Other schedules involve taking progestin only every few months. This lowers the amount of progestin that you are exposed to. Monthly regimens are also thought to result in hormone levels that are more like the natural menstrual cycle. Cyclical EPT can produce bleeding like a menstrual period, but it can occur less often than monthly.
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Menopause Hormone Therapy Providers: 986
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: This article is provided as general information only and is not intended to be used as medical advice. While the benefits of hormone replacement are well documented through clinical research, we are not representing that hormone therapy is a cure for any disease. Only your treating physician can determine if hormone replacement may be a beneficial part of your healthcare regimen, based on your age, overall health, risk factors, and lifestyle.
What Are The Types Of Hormone Therapy
There are two main types of hormone therapy :
- Estrogen Therapy: Estrogen is taken alone. Doctors most often prescribe a low dose of estrogen to be taken as a pill or patch every day. Estrogen may also be prescribed as a cream, vaginal ring, gel or spray. You should take the lowest dose of estrogen needed to relieve menopause symptoms and/or to prevent osteoporosis.
- Estrogen Progesterone/Progestin Hormone Therapy : Also called combination therapy, this form of HT combines doses of estrogen and progesterone .
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Important Questions To Ask About Menopause Hormone Medicines
- Are hormones right for me? Why?
- What are the benefits?
- What are the serious risks and common side effects?
- How long should I use hormone therapy?
- What is the lowest dose that will work for me?
- Are there any non-hormone medicines that I can take?
Want more information about menopause? Check the FDA website at: www.fda.gov/menopause
The drug and risk information in this booklet may change. Check Drugs@FDA for the latest facts on each product listed in this booklet.