Menopause Creams

In the wake of the news in March 2004 that medical trials regarding Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) for menopausal women were cancelled due to discovered links between the treatment and increase in a number of serious health conditions including breast cancer and strokes, there has been a sharp focus on finding effective alternatives for this once common therapy.

For almost 50 years, HRT has been the standby for doctors to prescribe for women who suffering from side effects of the body’s natural process of change. Even today, in spite of conflicting reports, HRT is still the most popular menopause treatment approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. With an FDA approval, HRT was assumed to be not only an effective treatment for the symptoms, but also considered safe.

When HRT was found to be risky, many women asked to change their treatment and started to search for other means to alleviate the discomfort of menopause. Menopause creams have gained in popularity as an alternative to HRT. Some of these creams are available over the counter while others can only be obtained by prescription.

Creams work much the same way that HRT does—the active ingredient in the creams are usually the hormones estrogen and progesterone. These two hormones decrease during perimenopause and menopause because, as the ovaries mature, they are no longer able to maintain a balanced level of the estrogen and progesterone. In the big picture, this is eventually what causes the stoppage of menstruation (menopause). However, the problem isn’t usually with menopause, it’s the symptoms that are caused by the unbalanced hormones (perimenopause). The inconsistent levels of hormones cause the body to react in many ways, including headaches, irregular or heavy menstrual bleeding, hot flashes, anxiety and insomnia.

Therefore, doctors have found that the best solution to try to treat these symptoms is to try to reintroduce these hormones into the body.

Creams have been thought to be able to do this successfully because they are able to achieve the outcomes of HRT, but without the potent levels of hormones that HRT delivers to a woman’s body. Too many hormones, according to the March 2004 study, can cause potentially life threatening conditions: cancer, strokes as well as heart and liver damage. Pharmaceutical companies that manufacture menopause cream say that their product is a safe alternative.

Before deciding that a cream is the best treatment for menopausal symptoms, it is important to review what is on the market and exactly how safe these options are. Three of the most common menopause creams out there are:

Estrasorb:
The FDA approved this topical cream as a means of replenishing estrogen in 2003. Upon its approval, the FDA stated “Estrasorb has been proven effective for treating moderate to severe symptoms of hot flashes and night sweats associated with menopause.” The cream is only applied to the legs, calves or thighs daily.

Premarin:
This prescription only cream is an “estrogen-related chemicals including estrone, equilin, 17 alpha-dihydroequilin, and others. They are derived from the urine of pregnant horses, and the exact composition of the estrogenic mixture is uncertain. The vaginal cream is used for treating the uncomfortable vaginal symptoms that may occur after menopause.”
(www.medicine.net)

Pro-Gest:
Pro-Gest is used to boost low levels of progesterone in a woman’s body. This cream is advertised as a “natural progesterone” replacement. Pro-Gest creators say this is a safer alternative to the synthetic hormones that are typically used in other methods of HRT (including creams). However, it is not FDA approved, nor doctor recommended. It can be sold in alternative health practice or chain vitamin stores. Concerns have been raised in recent studies about this product, though (see below).

There are countless creams available, including so-called “facial/beauty” lines that use hormones in their products and claim to counteract the signs of menopause. Again, there are no medical trials on creams such as “Estrocare,” “Progestocare” and “Progesta-eze.”

These creams don’t come cheap, either—typically starting at $20 for only a few applications, and most of these creams need to be applied at least once daily. Also available are non-hormonal creams, but they’re effectiveness seems to be minimal. Still, the non-hormone creams may help some of the more cosmetic concerns including dry, wrinkled skin and age spots. These creams are not thought to pose any health risk to women.

Further studies on the hormone replacement creams are needed to determine if the perceived notion that they are less risky than traditional HRT is accurate. Initial studies seem to indicate that perhaps closer attention needs to be paid to these creams, too.

In March 2004, the New York Times reported that progesterone creams like Pro-Gest raise hormone levels just as much as traditional HRT. This contradicts the belief of many that creams can help balance diminished hormones in a safer, less invasive way. The fact that creams like Pro-Gest are so readily available is causing women to have a false sense of security and not treat the use of these creams as a form of medical therapy, the way most would if prescribed medication.

No matter what form of treatment a woman decides to use to treat the symptoms that arrive with the coming of menopause, whether it is a cream or a pill, there is no doubt that before any regular application or ingestion of hormones should be approved by a doctor. Menopause symptoms can be hard to handle, but without proper supervision, the results of self treatment can be even worse.

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