Experts say that approximately 70% of women experience menopausal symptoms as they pass from their fertile to post menopausal years including symptoms such as weigh gain, loss of sex drive, and hot flashes.
Hormone changes are responsible for the symptoms and can last up to seven years.
Gynecologists report that about a third of women who seek aid for their symptoms end up taking prescription hormones, while another third use bio-identical therapy, and the last third look for natural remedies or simply attempt to ignore the symptoms in their life.
Many women turned to natural products to treat their symptoms after a 2002 National Institutes of Health study that linked hormone therapy with an increased risk for cancer, stroke, blood clotting, and heart disease.
As a result the alternative treatment market increased substantially and now there are over 500 products that are supposedly aimed at treating menopausal symptoms in the forms of teas, tablets, gels, creams, and capsules.
Director of Red Hot Mamas, an educational organization for women facing menopause stated that it used to be all women took hormones, but now most of the women of the organization works with head straight to the health food store looking for aid.
