Clinical experience with tibolone, a tissue-specific hormone

Tibolone is a tissue-specific synthetic steroid hormone with both estrogenic and progestogenic properties. Clinical studies in postmenopausal women have shown that tibolone effectively controls climacteric symptoms, including flushing, sweating and vaginal dryness, as well as having a positive effect on sexual pleasure. With respect to the skeleton, tibolone has been shown to prevent the normal loss of bone mass seen after the menopause. Tibolone maintains endometrial atrophy in over 95% of postmenopausal women receiving the standard dose of 2.5 mg/day for more than a year and therefore protects from endometrial cancer. In typical studies, vaginal bleeding/spotting has been registered in 12% of women (n = 953), compared with 6% in a placebo-treated control group, a figure which compared favorably with the cumulative rates of vaginal bleeding experienced with a continuous combined regimen (Kliogest), which were twice that of tibolone.