Prescription Menopause Medications That Bring Relief

There are many prescription menopause medications that can help to relieve the symptoms of this phase of a woman's life. Some of those symptoms that cause such distress include hot flashes, fast heartbeat and high blood pressure, vaginal dryness, mood swings, trouble sleeping, fatigue, anxiety, depression, irregular or heavy periods and many others. The reason they happen is because of hormone changes or lack of hormones associated with the onset of menopause.

Hot flashes are probably one of the most irritating symptoms that take place during the change of life. This is when a wave of heat comes over the woman, usually in the face and chest area, which causes flushing, sweating, heavy breathing and the feeling of being thrown into a furnace. The heart may race and hot flashes can last from 3 minutes up to 30 minutes. They can come up at any time throughout the day and sometimes even at night.

Some antidepressants seem to make good headway when it comes to minimizing the symptoms of menopause. Effexor has been known to reduce hot flashes and help with depression. Prozac is another medication that relieves hot flashes along with anxiety or mood swings that some women are plagued with during this phase of life. Zoloft, Aventyl, Norpramin, and Tofranil are often prescribed to the menopausal woman in order to deal with depression. They may help hot flashes and the symptom of confusion that often accompany the change of life.

Women who have never had high blood pressure before may suddenly be stricken with this disorder during menopause. Clonindine is frequently prescribed for it in these women because it also seems to help with hot flashes. However, this drug does have side effects like insomnia which could induce another menopausal symptom, sleeplessness. Conversely, it also has a tendency to make you drowsy throughout the day.

In the 1970's synthetic estrogen and progesterone drugs given to menopausal women were found to be linked with endometrial cancer, then to breast cancer, heart disease and strokes. This spurred a search to look for alternative methods to treat menopausal symptoms using more natural ingredients.

The result was the creation of Bio-Identical Hormones for use in treating menopausal symptoms. These are hormones that are molecularly identical to the hormones that are produced in the body. Physicians can write a compounded prescription that is tailor made to the women and balances all three hormone categories within the body: estrogen, progesterone, and androgen. Although there isn't any actual medical proof that these things work, women who use them will tell you that they do.

You may also wish to try out some over the counter menopause medication. Some of these natural products are quite effective at dealing with your symptoms without the side effects you might get from prescription menopause medications.