3 Treatments and strategies: an overview

Broadly speaking, common menopause treatments fall into three categories. In no particular order, these are:

• Medical: Hormone replacement therapy (HRT), or Hormone therapy, as it is known amongst menopause professionals, bio-identical hormone therapy, and the use of prescription drugs that are more usually used for other medical conditions, e.g. anti-depressants like Citalopram and Fluoxetine.
• Complementary and alternative therapies: Herbal supplements, such as black cohosh, St. John’s Wort, red clover and other isoflavones or phytoestrogens (which act in the body in a similar way to our natural oestrogen), acupuncture, reflexology and mind-body techniques like yoga.
• Lifestyle solutions, such as exercise, nutrition, stress reduction and management, strategies to promote good sleep (e.g. developing ‘sleep hygiene’) and use of relaxation techniques.