Canadian Consensus Conference on menopause, 2006 update.

OBJECTIVE

To provide guidelines for health care providers on the management of menopause in asymptomatic healthy women as well as in women presenting with vasomotor symptoms, urogenital, sexual, and mood and memory concerns and on specific medical considerations, and cardiovascular and cancer issues.

OUTCOMES

Prescription medications, complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), and lifestyle interventions are presented according to their efficacy in treating menopausal symptoms.

EVIDENCE

MEDLINE and the Cochrane database were searched for articles from March 2001 to April 2005 in English on subjects related to menopause, menopausal symptoms, urogenital and sexual health, mood and memory, hormone therapy, CAM, and on specific medical considerations that affect the decision of which intervention to choose.

VALUES

The quality of evidence is rated using the criteria described in the report of the Canadian Task Force on the Periodic Health Examination. Recommendations for practice are ranked according to the method described in this report (see Table 1).

SPONSORS

The development of this consensus guideline was supported by unrestricted educational grants from Berlex Canada Inc, Lilly Canada, Merck Frosst, Novartis, Novogen, Novo Nordisk, Proctor and Gamble, Schering Canada, and Wyeth Canada.