The menopause can be a difficult time, with women experiencing hot flushes, night sweats, mood swings and often a great sense of sadness at the perceived loss of youth. The NHS estimates that eight out of ten women experience symptoms when going through the menopause. Of these women, while some take HRT to ease their severity, others have turned to herbal remedies to combat symptoms after a spate of HRT-related health scares. However there has been a recent warning that these remedies may not only be ineffective but even detrimental to health.
A report in the Drugs and Therapeutic Bulletin has said that there is no strong evidence of the efficacy of herbal treatments and has warned that because there is little clinical research done on herbal treatments, not enough is known about their safety or potential interactions. The Medical and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency is attempting to better monitor herbal remedies, giving Menoherb (which contains black cohosh, thought to ease hot flushes and sleep problems) a Traditional Herbal Registration. However there are still many treatments, from red clover to ginseng, which have been insufficiently researched. The bulletin identified the lack of extended clinical data on herbal remedies as a big problem; in studies on black cohosh, for example, results were “equivocal” and there are concerns that it may damage the liver. Studies often don’t include a large enough sample of patients and are poorly designed and fail to account for the different chemical makeup of different preparations of the same herb.
A survey in 2007 published by Menopause International found that two fifths of women had tried alternative treatments to combat menopausal symptoms. Herbalists have said that just because there is no reliable data does not mean treatments are not effective, but the authors of the article have expressed concern that doctors may be unaware women are taking herbal supplements and need to routinely ask this when conducting a consultation.
The regulation of herbal medications and food supplements has been coming under increasing scrutiny, with experts in the field of obesity, sexual dysfunction and women’s health warning that consumers are frequently being ripped off or even put at risk by products that are untested and ineffective.