Herbs for Menopause

Survey of Women in Menopause

Which herbs do women use during menopause? In a telephone survey of 886 women in the United States, 22.1% used an alternative therapy to manage menopausal symptoms.

In this survey:

• 9.1% used stress management techniques
  
• 13.1% used over-the-counter herbs or supplements
  
• 0.9% used chiropractic
  
• 2.6% used massage therapy
  
• 7.4% took dietary soy
  
• 0.6% used acupuncture
  
• 2.0% saw a naturopathic doctor or homeopath
  
• 1.2% saw a herbalist.

Among the women who used alternative therapies, 89 to 100% found them to be somewhat or very helpful.

Sleep disturbances were associated with a four-fold increase in the use of bodywork, a three-fold increase in the use of stress management, and more than double the use of dietary soy products.

Another survey involved 500 women at an outpatient clinic in Chicago.

Seventy nine percent of women used dietary supplements, of which 36.5% used dietary supplements daily, 51.7% used one or two supplements, and 48.4% used three or more supplements.

Commonly used herbs included soy (42%), green tea (34.68%), chamomile (20.76%), gingko (20.51%), ginseng (17.97%), echinacea (15.44%) and St. John's wort (7.34%).

Black cohosh, garlic, red clover, kava, valerian, evening primrose, and ephedra were used by less than 15% of respondents.