Tibolone for climacteric syndrome in postmenopausal women.

Objective To investigate the effectiveness and side effects of tibolone for climacteric syndrome in postmenopausal women.Methods 73 postmenopausal women with climacteric syndrome were assigned to hormone therapy group(n=48) and control group(n=25).None of them had evidences of ovarian or uterine malignant tumors.Endometrial thickness was 5 mm,breast physical examination was normal.Therapy group was given tibolone 2.5mg/d orally for 6 months.Control group was given placebo(oryzanol 60mg/d,vitamin E 50mg/d) for 6 months.Symptoms,vaginal bleeding,breast tenderness and serum FSH,LH,E2,ALT,AST were observed before and after treatment.Results Three months after tibolone treatment,symptoms of climacteric syndrome were significantly relieved,sweat and hot flash disappeared in some of these patients.After the completion of tibolone treatment,FSH and LH levels were decreased and E2 levels increased significantly as compared with control group and the values before treatment.ALT,AST did not change significantly.One patient experienced slight vaginal bleeding during tibolone treatment;two patients felt breast tenderness one month after tibolone treatment,which disappeared without withdrawal of tibolone.6 months after tibolone therapy,ultrasonography showed breast was normal and endometrial thickness was 5 mm in all patients.Conclusion Tibolone can relieve climacteric symptoms and is well tolerated by the patients.It is worth further research.