Breast cancer survivors who experience severe menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes, vaginal dryness and urinary incontinence can find significant relief from those symptoms and improve their sexual health through a comprehensive program that emphasizes supportive care in addition to medication, according to a new study by researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center. Women who did not receive the additional supportive care did not fare as well in managing their menopausal symptoms or experience better sexual health, which suggests that healthcare professionals should consider the benefits of a program that addresses patients' individual needs as completely as possible.
Most scientific studies focus on understanding individual symptoms for a limited period of time.
And in clinical practice, the standard approach among physicians is to prescribe a drug to treat one menopausal symptom at a time. Postmenopausal breast cancer survivors in the comprehensive program also reported improvements in their sexual health, but no significant change in their energy levels compared with survivors who received standard care. It will pave the way for researchers to learn even better means for alleviating menopausal symptoms and sexuality concerns in these women, and to understand how to transfer the results from this UCLA effort to other sites. At the beginning of the study, all patients received physical examinations and completed questionnaires. After four months, they completed questionnaires a second time to re-evaluate their symptoms.