Phytotherapy for Menopausal Complaints

he therapy of climacteric complaints with estrogens and/or estrogengestagen combinations is undisputedly effective and presumably mostly safe for a short therapy duration. Longterm hormone therapy (HT) for the prevention of osteoporosis, the prevention of cardiovascular illnesses and for the increase of cognitive capacities in advanced age, however, does not appear justifiable any longer in light of the results of the WHI study, which among other risks has confirmed an increased risk of breast cancer for estrogengestagen combinations and an increased risk of apoplexy for pure estrogen substitution. Even if the increase in the relative risk to develop a Mamma carcinoma under HT or to suffer a stroke, appears to be small; for the concerned women, however, these events have elementary and lifethreatening consequences. Climacteric complaints represent a polysymptomatic clinical picture consisting of vegetative and psychical components (fig. 1). The complexity of the complaints in connection with the fact that the pharmacotherapy may have to last several months or even years in order to accompany the patient through the climacterics makes the approach of using and T