Is Soy Good for Menopausal Women?

When research suggested that women on hormone replacement therapy were at risk of suffering from serious problems like stroke, heart disease and breast cancer, many women decided not to avail themselves of that method of easing their menopausal symptoms. Soy, once considered a viable natural alternative, now appears to have little efficacy in treating these symptoms.

Background

• In July 2002, the Women's Health Initiative, a division of the National Institutes of Health, published the results of a study of 16,000 healthy women, which concluded that combined hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for the treatment of menopausal symptoms puts the recipients at greater risk of developing heart disease, blood clots, strokes and breast cancer. Combined hormone replacement medication includes both estrogen and progestin.
  Almost immediately, many women opted to stop HRT, or not to begin it at all, and began looking for other methods to deal with their symptoms.

Menopause Symptoms

• As a woman approaches menopause, the level of estrogen her body produces begins to drop, and the decline continues until she reaches full menopause. This drop in estrogen causes a cluster of symptoms, including hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal dryness and weight gain, which are at the least annoying and, in extreme cases, debilitating.

Soy as an Alternative Therapy

• An alternative therapy that seemed to offer promise was taking soy supplements. Soy beans contain phytoestrogens, naturally occurring compounds that act like estrogen in the body. It seemed logical to assume that ingesting soy would help mitigate the effects of the body's declining estrogen levels.

Research Results

• Unfortunately, ongoing research suggests that taking soy does not significantly relieve menopause symptoms. Authors John R. Lee, M.D., and Virginia Hopkins reported that researchers at Bowman Gray School of Medicine in North Carolina conducted a study into the subject. While 50 percent of the women taking soy supplements for the study reported that their hot flashes were less severe, 35 percent of women who took placebos reported the same thing. Furthermore, neither group experienced fewer hot flashes than before they took part in the study. According to Lee and Hopkins, another study at the Mayo Clinic also concluded that taking soy products have little or no effect on menopause symptoms.
  Furthermore, Dr. Lee cautioned that phytoestrogens stimulates the growth of cancer cells in breast tissue in laboratory tests, which would suggest that taking soy might actively increase a woman's risk of developing breast cancer.

Doctors' Advice

• Consequently, doctors are cautious about advising their patients to take soy supplements to relieve their symptoms. Dr. Margery Gass, president of the North American Menopause society and a professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, told Newsday reporter Joanne Kabak that soy supplements "are probably safe enough," but she added, "if people would really like to know whether what they're spending their time and money on is efficacious, I don't think we can guarantee that at this point."