Methods

This review is based on observations during 25 years of research into women's health, and on Medline searches on oestrogen or menopause. Only recent publications are cited. Unless otherwise stated, oestrogen therapy refers to treatment of postmenopausal women with pharmacological doses of oral oestrogen taken alone or with an oral progestogen.

Menopausal symptoms

About 75% of women in English speaking countries experience no troublesome symptoms during the menopause transition.2 Population studies have shown that symptoms are less common or different in other countries, and more common and more severe after an induced menopause. Hot flushes and night sweats are the only symptoms universally reported to respond (usually almost immediately) to oestrogen. Without treatment, hot flushes typically disappear within 1-2 years, but in some untreated women they continue for more than 20 years.

After the menopause the vaginal wall becomes thinner and less vascular, changes which may be accompanied by vaginal dryness and dyspareunia. Intravaginal oestrogen prevents and treats these symptoms and also reduces the risk of recurrent urinary tract infection, probably by modifying the vaginal flora.3 Urinary incontinence, which becomes more common with increasing age, is not usually improved …