Hormone replacement therapy (HRT: estrogen and progestin) remains the treatment of choice for women with vasomotor symptoms, and long-term HRT has been recommended for prevention purposes. The demand for alternatives to HRT, and the availability and use of over-the-counter products including dietary phytoestrogen supplements and naturopathic medicines, has grown dramatically. Few of these products have faced the rigors of randomized trials and none have been tested to evaluate their effects on long-term outcomes. The purpose of this four-year randomized controlled trial is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of three alternative approaches utilizing phytoestrogens to treat vasomotor symptoms in peri- and postmenopausal women. The treatments were chosen because of the scientific evidence supporting a possible benefit, the availability of products with adequate quality control their frequency of use in naturopathic medicine, and our ability to blind participants to the intervention. The five proposed treatment arms are as follow: 1) esterified estrogen and micronized progesterone: 9) a single herbal product, black cohosh; 3) a multibotanical preparation; 4) a combination regimen that includes the same multibotanical preparation plus soy diet counseling; and 5) placebo. The primary aim is to compare the effects of three alternative treatments, HRT, and placebo on the frequency and intensity of vasomotor symptoms measured by The Wiklund Menopause Symptom Checklist and a daily Vasomotor Symptom Diary. The secondary aims are to compare the effects of three alternative treatments, HRT, and placebo on the following: 1) vaginal cytology (vaginal maturation index); 2) serum lipids (total cholesterol, HDL and LDL cholesterol, triglycerides); 3) bone mineral density (hip and spine dual energy x-ray absorptiometry scan); 4) glucose metabolism (insulin, fasting blood glucose); and 5) coagulation factors (fibrinogen, PAI-1). The hypotheses are that compared to placebo the three alternative treatments tested in this study will have the following effects: reduce frequency of hot flashes and night sweats, improve vaginal maturation and decrease vagina atrophy as measured by maturation index, lower total cholesterol and LDL with no effect on HDL, reduce the rate of decline in bone mineral density (BMD), and have no effect on glucose metabolism or clotting factors. To accomplish the specific aims the investigators propose to do the following: 1) recruit and randomize 400 peri- and post-menopausal women to one of five treatment arms for one year; 2) collect measurements of primary and secondary outcomes at baseline, three, six, and 12 months; and 3) compare changes in outcomes in the groups taking alternative treatments to those in the HRT and placebo groups.
