Conventional medicine often considers menopause as a hormone-deficiency disorder and attempts to correct the imbalances that develop within a woman's hormonal system during and after menopause. The alternative medical approach focuses on strengthening the female body by encouraging it to balance, regulate, and normalize itself during the transition to menopause. Alternative treatments during menopause usually favor non-drug therapies. They shift the emphasis from HRT to natural ways of encouraging the body to balance and heal itself. They focus on dietary, nutritional, and lifestyle changes supplemented by therapies such as acupuncture, herbs, and homeopathic remedies that have been shown to be effective.
Natural therapies avoid side effects and the risks of prescription hormone replacement.
Alternative treatments have been shown to enhance the effects of HRT by reducing dosage requirements, thus alleviating the health risks associated with HRT or even eliminating some side effects. In some women they have been shown to eliminate the need for HRT altogether. Alternative therapies tend to work very slow. So, it may take weeks or months to see any effect. It also needs serious commitment on the part of the patient to stay with the therapy.