Posted by Phillipa on August 19, 2011, at 21:33:47
Pretty sure this is related to synthetic hormone theraphy. If I were you go for bioidentical hormone therapy it is what took away insomnia. Phillipa
From Reuters Health Information
Sleep Problems Common After Hormone Therapy Withdrawal
Megan BrooksAuthors and Disclosures
August 19, 2011 Women on short-term hormone therapy for menopausal symptoms are apt to have sleep problems when they stop taking the medication, a new study shows.
Problems include trouble falling asleep, staying asleep and poor overall quality of sleep.
"Women who elect to discontinue hormone therapy use may benefit from alternative methods of managing sleep problems," said lead author Dr. Sarah Tom in an e-mail to Reuters Health.
Hormone therapy is often used to address sleep problems in women during the menopausal transition. "Recent guidelines recommend that women limit the duration of hormone therapy use and it is not clear whether sleep problems return after hormone therapy discontinuation," Dr. Tom said.
Dr. Tom is an assistant professor and the Building Independent Research Careers in Women's Health Scholar in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.
To see what effect going off short-term hormone therapy has on sleep, she and her colleagues performed a secondary analysis of data from a randomized trial in which women either continued hormone therapy or suspended it for one or two months.
The women were enrolled in the Radiological Evaluation and Breast Density (READ) study, which was designed to see whether stopping hormone therapy briefly before screening mammography decreased mammographic breast density and the need for additional mammographic imaging. Eighty percent of the women were taking hormone therapy for symptom management.
The final analysis centered on 518 women who continued hormone therapy, 452 who stopped it for one month, and 435 who stopped it for two months. The average age across all groups was 60 years.
The women completed a sleep questionnaire at baseline and within roughly three months of randomization. Potentially confounding variables such as alcohol use, body mass index, age, race and ethnicity were taken into account.
In a report online July 16th in Menopause, the research team reports that women who stopped hormone therapy reported significantly more sleep problems than their peers who stayed on hormone therapy. This was the case "across nearly all measures of sleep difficulty," the authors note.
Compared with the continuation group, the two-month suspension group reported 46% more days with trouble falling asleep, 46% more days sleeping poorly, and 31% more days waking too early, they report. The effects of the one-month suspension were less pronounced but still statistically significant.
The association between hormone therapy suspension and sleep problems did not differ significantly by age or type or duration of hormone therapy.
These findings, Dr. Tom and colleagues note, are consistent with those of a previous small study of voluntary hormone therapy suspension, which found a moderate increase in sleep problems after hormone therapy was discontinued.
The "high rate" of follow-up sleep problems is likely related to the return of vasomotor symptoms after hormone therapy is stopped, the researchers say.
Women who choose to discontinue hormone therapy may benefit from alternative forms of sleep management, they conclude. The frequency of use of sleep aids did not vary according to group; roughly one third of all women used sleep aids.
Menopause. Published online July 16, 2011.
poster:Phillipa
thread:994349
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20110809/msgs/994349.html