[Menopause, hormone therapy and alternative medicine:. A cross-sectional study in Roskilde County in 1998]

The aim of this study was to determine how many women use alternative medicine to alleviate menopausal symptoms and how often they feel relieved of those symptoms. We also examined whether there was a negative correlation between the use of alternative medicine and the use of hormone therapy, as well as whether there was any correlation between the use of alternative medicine and self-rated health status.

An anonymous postal questionnaire was sent to 5,300 women older than 44 years in Roskilde County, Denmark. The public health insurance in Roskilde County picked 100 woman at random for each of the 53 general practitioners, who entered the survey in 1998. 72% answered the questionnaire.

24% (95%; C.I. 22-26%) used alternative medicine either formerly or currently. 54% felt that their symptoms had been relieved by the alternative medicine. More women who had formerly used hormone therapy were using alternative medicine currently or formerly (OR 2.5; 95% C.I. 1.9-3.4 for ages 45-59 and OR 3.9; 95% C.I. 2.6-6.0 for ages 60+) than women who had never used hormone therapy. Some women were using alternative medicine and hormone therapy at the same time, although fewer current users of hormone therapy aged 45-59 years were also using alternative medicine (OR 0.5; 95% C.I. 0.3-0.8) than were those who never had used hormone therapy. Fewer former users of alternative medicine reported good plus very good (OR 0.7; 95% C.I. 0.6-0.9) or very good (OR 0.6; 95% C.I. 0.5-0.8) self-rated health status than those who had never used alternative medicine.

Women who had formerly used hormone therapy used alternative medicine more often than women who had never used hormone therapy. Women who had formerly used alternative medicine tended to report lower self-rated health status than women who had never used alternative medicine.