The Menopause

Abstract

Most menopausal women do not require specific therapy. Some require mild sedation coupled with reassurance, and a few must have estrogen therapy, best administered in short-term oral courses. The propensity of estrogen to evoke bleeding complicates all its uses in postmenopausal women. Vaginal administration in management of atrophic vaginitis is one form of estrogen therapy that may be given over a period of years without fear. Estrogen appears to have value in long-term management of osteoporosis, and the weight of present evidence indicates that it is of value in prevention and treatment of coronary atherosclerosis in postmenopausal women.