The menopause.

Symptoms due to estrogen deficiency begin in the perimenopausal years and progress as serum levels of this hormone decrease Vasomotor instability, manifested by hot flushes or night sweats, may persist for several months to a few years. Psychologic symptoms include anxiety, tension, depression, insomnia, palpitations, and headaches. Atrophy of the genital epithelium may result in senile vaginitis with symptoms of irritation, burning, pruritus, dyspareunia, and even vaginal bleeding. Even the lower urinary tract mucosa is dependent upon estrogen. Postmenopausal osteoporosis affects 25 to 50% of older women and increases the risk for vertebral, hip, and other fractures. Estrogen therapy for menopausal complaints has received adverse publicity because several reports have indicated that unopposed estrogens increase the risk of endometrial cancer. Added progestogen not only negates this risk but reduces the incidence of endometrial adenocarcinoma in estrogen-progestogen users to less than that observed in untreated women. Estrogen replacement therapy does not increase the risk of breast cancer; the incidence of this malignancy, however, was also less in the estrogen-progestogen users when compared with either the untreated women or from that expected from the national cancer surveys. In evaluating postmenopausal women for hormone replacement, the benefits of estrogen-progestogen therapy must be weighed against possible risks.