Menopause & Homeopathic Medicine

Menopause is a natural stage in a woman's life, which, however involves hormonal changes and can include a range of medical symptoms. Menopause's end result is permanent ending of menstrual bleeding because of reduced ovarian production of female hormones.

Menopause and Menopausal Symptoms

• Menopause occurs in two phases: perimenopause, a period of months or years when periods become irregular and menopausal symptoms begin, and menopause itself, defined as beginning 12 months after the woman's last period. While some women experience no symptoms other than the end of menstrual bleeding, others do experience symptoms. Some possible symptoms include mood swings, anxiety, depression and other emotional and psychological effects; fatigue; hot flashes; and sleep disturbances.

Why Homeopathy?

• Because conventional treatments can have harmful or unwanted effects, homeopathic (or natural-based) treatments for menopause-related conditions and symptoms have enjoyed increasing popularity among both women and their practitioners. Particularly, women who favor more natural-based lifestyles incline toward homeopathic treatments. Past personal history of drug reactions also may prompt some women to prefer homeopathic menopausal alternatives.

  There are several reasons to use homeopathic treatments for menopausal symptoms. Homeopathy offers a wider range of options than conventional medicine. It stimulates hormonal balances, without using harmful drugs and provides natural alternatives to potentially harmful pharmaceutical treatments.

Conventional Treatments

• The most common conventional treatment for menopausal women, at least until quite recently and for some physicians even now, is hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Such treatments involve prescribed ingestion of estrogen, progestin or a combination. However, studies have demonstrated that continuous HRT therapy carries significant risks, ranging from mild to quite serious. Some serious risks of continuous HRT include heart attack, stroke, blood clots, acute liver disease, undiagnosed vaginal bleeding and increased uterine cancer risk (up to eight times higher incidence than in the absence of HRT therapies).

Homeopathic Treatment Alternatives

• Homeopathic treatments involve using natural substances to relieve menopausal symptoms and to stimulate natural hormonal balances. Consult a holistic practitioner who is well trained in homeopathic medicine for the most effective homeopathic treatments. This can be problematic, since within the medical community, popularity of holistic alternatives varies widely in different geographical areas. Within the United States, holistic alternative treatments tend to be far more widely available in the west and south than in the northeast.

Homeopathic Approaches

• Some examples of homeopathic treatments for menopausal symptoms include Aconitum napellus for anxiety or sleep disturbances; Aurum metalicum, for depression; and Belladonna, Amylenum nitrosum, Bryonia and Calcarea carbonica for specific types of hot flashes.