Clonidine for Menopausal Symptoms

Menopause is a period marked by many changes for women as their bodies begin to produce less estrogen and progesterone hormones and the ovaries stop producing eggs. A wide range of symptoms can accompany menopause, and clonidine has proved to relieve them in some instances.

Menopause symptoms

• Menopausal women experience many symptoms, including such common ones as heart racing, hot flashes, night sweats, skin flushing, and even insomnia. More uncommon symptoms include decreased sex drive, forgetfulness, irregular menstrual cycle, depression, irritability, anxiety, and heart palpitations.

Clonidine

• Clonidine is primarily used to treat hypertension by decreasing the amount of certain chemicals in the blood, allowing the heart to beat less rapidly and the blood vessels to relax.Other uses for clonidine include treatments for alcohol withdrawal, diabetic diarrhea, and as an aid in smoking cessation.

Clonidine for menopause

• According to Medline Plus (a service of the National Institutes of Health), some medications, such as clonidine, also treat hot flashes or skin flushing as an alternative to hormone treatment in women that have survived breast cancer.

Side effects

• Clonidine can have certain side effects that include bradycardia (slow heart rate), shortness of breath, swelling, confusion, hallucinations, fever, dizziness, dry mouth, headache, muscle aches, or nausea.

Risks

• Drugs.com (an online information guide to prescription medications) warns that suddenly stopping clonidine can result in nervousness, agitation, headaches, tremors, severe hypertension, or other life-threatening symptoms. Taking alcohol with clonidine can increase the severity of some side effects.