NURS 6521 Week 10 Assignment - Women’s and Men’s Health, Infectious Disease, and Hematologic Disorders

Michelle, I appreciate your insight on menopause and its treatment. There are many options for the treatment of menopause. While hormonal therapy (HT) has shown to be the most effective, somewomen choose not to use HT or have contraindications that prevent them from using HT. This patient has the potential to not be a candidate for HT due to her family history of breast cancer, which increases her risk of developing breast cancer. For the treatment of vasomotor symptoms, women with estrogen-sensitive cancer are generally not candidates for systemic menopausal HT (David et al, 2022). Some alternatives to HT that combat vasomotor symptoms include paroxetine or other selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)/serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), gabapentin, pregabalin, or clonidine. Before starting any of these medications, the patient should be assessed for any contraindicationsto ensure that they are an appropriate candidate for these alternative therapies. Selective SSRIs and SNRIs have exhibited statistically large decreases in hot flash severity and/or frequency (David et al, 2022). Studies have shown that within 12 weeks of treatment, gabapentin can be as effective as HT (Caporuscio, 2022). Though these alternative treatments seem to be effective in treating menopausal vasomotor symptoms, paroxetine is the only non-hormonal therapy that hasbeen FDA-approved for the treatment of menopausal vasomotor symptoms. References Caporuscio, J. P. (2022). Gabapentin for hot flashes: What to know. David P.S., Smith T.L., Nordhues H.C., & Kling J.M. (2022). A clinical review on paroxetine andemerging therapies for the treatment of vasomotor symptoms. International Journal of Women’s Health 14,353-361.