Hot flashes, night sweats, vasomotor symptoms, and vaginal dryness are the most disturbing symptoms to the peri-menopausal women.
Postmenopausal women become subject to osteoporosis and risk of coronary heart disease.
Hormone replacement therapy effectively reduces the vasomotor sysmptoms. Many studies also showed that the postmenopausal steroid hormone therapy can prevent the development of osteoporosis. Due to the beneficial effects of steroid hormones, the use of estrogen to prevent the menopausal symptoms became popular in 1960s. Such findings led to a decline in the use of this type of treatment in 1975-1980. Some studies have indicated that the ERT is associated with an increased risk of developing breast cancer.