Menopause is an expected event in woman's life. It is diagnosed after 12 months of amenorrhea, which should not be related to pathological causes such as surgery, chemotherapy or radiation. The transition to menopause is a complex physiological process, and it is often accompanied by the effects of aging and culture in which we live. The most common symptoms related to menopause are vasomotor episodes, vaginal atrophy, difficulty sleeping, reduced libido, problems with cognitive functions and low mood. These symptoms can be treated by adding hormones, with hormone replacement therapy, or dietary supplements.
In this master thesis, we decided to research plants, that are commonly known in traditional medicine, and tend to be used to relieve menopausal symptoms. Many women in todays time do not want to be treated with hormonal therapy, because many side effects can be present. Therefore, it is very important, even for pharmacists, to know how to properly advise which plants or herbal dietary supplements are effective in treating the symptoms of menopause. We reviewed dietary supplements available on the Slovenian market that are advertised as alleviating the symptoms of menopause, and contain one or more plants. We reviewed the doses of plants or their extracts in each and evaluated their effectiveness and safety, based on already known data from articles and research done in relation to menopause.
The results showed, that herbal medicinal products are still the ones to be trusted most. Many herbal supplements state poorly where the active ingredient comes from and/or to what extent the active compounds are present in individual extracts. However, many also have much lower or much higher doses compared to those that have been shown in studies to be effective in relieving menopausal symptoms. We found that hormonal and herbal medicines are still the most trusted, and among dietary supplements, we recommend the use products containing soy extract in combination with black clover, or products containing sage, soy or ginseng, as these have effect on most different menopausal symptoms.
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