Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT)

Hormone Replacement Therapy appears in this listing because a study published in 2002 found it to be a risk factor for heart disease, stroke, and breast cancer. This came as a considerable surprise since prior studies had suggested HRT might actually be beneficial for one or all of these conditions. Women largely heeded the new warnings, and prescriptions for the principal medications have dropped by two-thirds since 2002. Most recently (JAMA, April 2007) it has been found that the judicious use of minimal HRT for a few years during menopause can be recommended without fear of increased risk of heart disease, although there remains a modest risk for stroke and breast cancer.

Such increased risk might be acceptable if there were no alternative to HRT. But with Neurofeedback we have another option to address the matter of hot flashes and night sweats. Neurofeedback may not lead to complete symptom suppression, but even in those cases it will likely reduce the medication dose necessary for symptom suppression. Given the risk factors, any such reduction is to be welcomed.

Even though a direct comparison with a medication option is possible here for the symptoms of menopause, one should really not think of Neurofeedback simply as an alternative to medication. It is brain training, and the benefits of such training fall out much more broadly. Menopausal symptoms are attributable to large swings in hormone levels that occur somewhat erratically, and these can have varied impacts on brain function beyond the above classic symptoms---effects on cognition, on emotional state, and on the feeling of well-being.

The effect of the Neurofeedback training should be lasting, once a training program has been completed. However, booster sessions should be tried in the event of the recurrence of symptoms.