Highlights
- •CAM is widely used by menopausal women, but not widely disclosed.
- •Illness-disease distinction highlights what patients seek vs. what doctors treat.
- •We review: 1. natural products, 2. mind-body practices, and 3. Asian treatments.
- •Increased CAM awareness may improve treatment effectiveness via ‘meaning response’.
Abstract
Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is widely used for menopause, although
not all women disclose use to their healthcare providers. This narrative review aims
to expand providers’ understanding of cross-cultural approaches to treating and managing
menopause by providing an overarching framework and perspective on CAM treatments.
Increased provider understanding and awareness may improve not only provider-patient
communication but also effectiveness of treatments. The distinction between illness
(what patients suffer) and disease (what physicians treat) highlights the gap between
what patients seek and doctors provide, and may help clarify why many women seek CAM
at menopause. For example, CAM is often sought by women for whom biomedicine has been
unsuccessful or inaccessible. We review the relevance to menopause of three CAM categories:
natural products, mind–body practices including meditation, and other complementary
health approaches including traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and Japanese Kampo. Assessing the effectiveness of CAM is challenging because of the individualized
nature of illness patterns and associated treatments, which complicate the design
of randomized controlled trials. Because many women seek CAM due to inefficacy of
biomedical treatments, or cultural or economic marginalization, biomedical practitioners
who make an effort to learn about CAM and ask patients about their CAM use or interest
may dramatically improve the patient-provider relationship and rapport, as well as
harnessing the ‘meaning response’ (Moerman, 2002) imbued in the clinical encounter.
By working with women to integrate their CAM-related health-seeking behaviors and
treatments, providers may also boost the efficacy of their own biomedical treatments.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 28, 2017
Accepted:
January 26,
2017
Received:
January 19,
2017
Identification
Copyright
© 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
