Have you experienced a unique set of menopause symptoms that are different from your friend’s? Perhaps your major issues center around vaginal dryness or low libido, while your friend can’t seem to get a good night’s sleep.
For still others, changes in mood, an increase in anxiety, or hot flashes could dominate this transitional phase.
With so many different experiences, it’s no wonder that symptom management for one woman doesn’t always look the same for the next. Personalized menopause treatment for addressing specific symptoms is seemingly becoming more popular – and that’s a good thing.
Just as you and your friends are vastly different, so is your genetic makeup, environmental exposures, and physical chemistry. The bottom line: taking a more personalized approach to menopause treatment creates the opportunity to improve your symptoms in a way that’s meaningful and most effective for you.1
Consider What Studies Show on Hormonal Menopause Treatment Options
Studies have long looked at ways to help women manage their menopause symptoms – and there’s still a lot of research to be done. Research does, however, consistently show that menopausal hormone therapy is one of the most effective treatments for those women who have traditional menopause symptoms – as many as 80% of midlife women are dealing with hallmark symptoms like hot flashes and night sweats while only around 25% are treating them.2
Subsequent studies indicate that routine use of hormone replacement therapy doesn’t necessarily provide the level of support all women need (and could get) if they had more tailored and personalized menopause treatment options.3 For a selection of women, hormone therapy could potentially create more problems than benefits.
Instead of defaulting to the use of hormones, women can consider variables that may influence their treatment options, such as hereditary factors, as well as personal preferences. The bottom line: exploring prescription medication and hormone therapy when symptoms become overly disruptive can be helpful, but there’s also a case to be made for personalizing treatment based on your specific symptoms and goals – ultimately to determine the best management solution for your needs.
Education and Options Make a Big Difference
Personalized menopause treatment potentially creates a significant change in the way healthcare providers manage symptoms. Like going in for a complex surgical procedure, providers need to gather patient information, including medical history, family history of risk factors for complications, and actual symptoms, before planning out a treatment regimen.
Additionally, education about management options is of increasing importance. For example, in one clinical study, a group of researchers created a personalized menopause support aid that took into consideration not just medical history, but also the level of education the women had about their options. Instead of simply recommending hormone therapy, women were asked questions and given options so they could make more informed decisions about the menopausal therapy that best suited their goals.4
The process involved education around: 5
- Factors for health risks that potentially could increase during menopause, with or without therapy, such as breast cancer, coronary heart disease, and osteoporosis
- Strategies for risk reduction
- The opportunity for lifestyle changes that could impact outcomes, such as eating a low-fat diet or getting more exercise
- The benefits and side effects of using estrogen or other hormone-based therapies
The study found that women who were more educated, felt more empowered to make decisions about their health management choices and felt they received better quality of care.6
Adjustments Over Time Matter, Too
Another benefit of personalized menopause treatment and symptom management is its ability to flex with you. Going on hormonal therapy may not necessarily resolve all your symptoms, could only work for a limited amount of time, or may only provide some relief.7 Adjustments to your symptom management approach may also need to be made throughout the years to come and more personalized solutions can create additional opportunities for doing this.
The Benefits of Personalized Treatment for Menopause Symptoms
Personalized menopause treatment may offer a vast number of benefits for many women. It’s important to consider what the use of supportive therapies and alternative therapies can provide when coupled with or used instead of prescription or hormonal therapy. By utilizing alternative and complimentary therapies that more closely address a woman’s exact symptoms, symptom relief may be more successful.
Some of the potential benefits of exploring personalized menopause symptom management may include:
- Fewer Side Effects: While it’s considered to be the gold standard of menopause symptom management, many women still may experience side effects from hormonal therapy, including headaches, breast pain, hair loss, and mood changes, that don’t make the transition through menopause any easier.8 But by taking a more tailored approach to addressing menopause symptoms, more specifically personalizing hormonal treatments, it may be possible to reduce some of those side effects.9
Additionally, by utilizing other complimentary, non-prescription therapies, such as holistic products, alternative medicine (i.e. acupuncture) or dietary supplements, women may be able to note better results. It’s important, however, to always check with your healthcare provider first to ensure any supplemental symptom management approaches are compatible with hormone therapy.
- Targeted Symptom Management: It’s important to remember that not every woman will experience the same symptoms during their menopausal transition. By taking a more personalized, patient-centered approach, menopause symptom management can be tailored based on the specific symptoms being experienced, providing more tailored relief than a standardized treatment.
- Less Ups-and-Downs: When menopause symptom management is more personalized to meet the unique needs of the individual, there’s seemingly more control over type(s) of achievable relief. That means the symptoms that can disrupt daily life and make day-to-day living more difficult, may actually be lessened since women could potentially be benefiting from very customized relief options designed to address their symptom specific needs.
Personalized Menopause Treatment Empowers Decision Making
Personalized menopause treatment that includes education along with non-prescription or prescription management options can provide a powerful tool chest of solutions for women. As mentioned, many women will benefit from hormone therapies that will aide in improving their quality of life. Yet, for others, lifestyle changes or alternative therapies could prove to be more beneficial.
By providing women with more personalized care and options, along with education, there’s a better chance of seeing symptom improvement that really makes a difference in their daily lives. Instead of defaulting to what’s offered initially, consider asking your healthcare provider to explore and help you choose among a myriad of options available to improve your health and well-being during this transitional time.
Resources
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK285446/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9938702/#
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23018143/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1480006/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1480006/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1480006/
- https://www.healthline.com/health/is-my-hrt-working#persistent-symptoms
- https://www.nhs.uk/medicines/hormone-replacement-therapy-hrt/side-effects-of-hormone-replacement-therapy-hrt/
- https://www.ifm.org/news-insights/menopause-hormone-therapy
