More New Menopause Drugs Offer Hope

According to the company's material, studies are being conducted to show that "LibiGel can safely improve women's sexual desire and the frequency of satisfying sexual events and decrease personal distress associated with low sexual desire in women."

Hip Hip Hooray!

But not so fast: Messing with your natural hormone levels can play terrible tricks and I'm not talking about growing a mustache: things like heart attacks and strokes. So the company making Libigel is doing a cardiovascular safety study with 2,400 women who take it over 12 months, and will continue to follow the women for an additional four years after it submits the drug for approval. The incidence of breast cancer is also being tracked throughout the study.

Another group of scientists is taking an entirely different approach to "curing" hot flashes. In stead of using estrogen, they are researching selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs). I don't really understand all the science, but what I've been able to find out is that they do not pose the dangers that estrogen replacement therapy poses, and they somehow trick the brain. The drug being studied doesn't have as cool a name as the ones mentioned before; it's called RAD1901 for now. The first trial is on 100 women and there will be lots of followup trials with more subjects, but it's a start. SERMs are not new; they are used to treat breast cancer and osteoporosis, but according to the research, they usually make hot flashes worse, not better. Something about this one is different.

One other drug shows promise and you may have heard of it: escitalopram, better known as Lexapro. It's used to treat depression and anxiety disorders. Heaven knows some of us suffer from that during menopause and may be using it already. The researchers say it is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) and that those increase serotonin, a brain substance that influences mood. Serotonin may also affect brain levels of estradiol, a hormone related to hot flashes.

This research is studying whether escitalopram reduces menopausal hot flashes in addition to elevating our moods.  Scientists say estrogen may keep us from getting depressed and so when levels decline at menopause, our mood declines as well. I didn't know this but apparently estrogen is sometimes prescribed for depression. But estrogen has serious side effects. So if Lexapro treats anxiety and depression, ALSO diminishes hot flashes, and isn't estrogen, well, won't that be a wonder drug?

And finally, other good news: Investigators have demonstrated promising results with omega-3 fatty acids as a treatment for depression associated with menopause.

Omega-3 fatty acids are found in foods (such as fish) and have widely established health benefits. Omega-3 fatty acids are polyunsaturated fatty acids; it is incredibly easy to increase your intake of them. I don't know whether you can get enough through food to counter depression, but there have been studies on how they can treat bipolar depression. Scientists found increased omega-3 fatty acids in blood plasma in women who were undergoing hormone replacement therapy (HRT)or who were on birth-control pills, which are a dose of hormones. The omega-3 fatty acids may account for HRTs antidepressant effects, they say. If menopause causes a decline in estrogen levels, therefore, lower amounts of omega-3 fatty acids may be available to the brain. The research is to determine if supplementing omega-3 fatty acids after menopause increases the level enough to eliminate or reduce the depression.