INTRODUCTION: Vasomotor symptoms are the most common menopausal symptoms for which women seek treatment. We describe current treatment use by practitioner type (gynecologists vs primary care providers [PCPs]) and US geographic region.
METHODS: This subgroup analysis of a noninterventional, observational study used a convenience sample of 283 practitioners (131 gynecologists, 152 PCPs) who abstracted data on menopause-specific therapy from medical records of women aged 40‒60 years who initially presented with menopausal symptoms between 1 January 2016 and 31 December 2019. Data were summarized descriptively.
RESULTS: Practitioners provided data for 1016 women (from gynecologists: 512; PCPs: 504). About half the women overall experienced symptoms for ≥6 months before consultation. Patients of gynecologists had more vaginal and sexual symptoms recorded than patients of PCPs. Gynecologists’ patients more commonly had prescription medications (63% vs 57%) but less commonly had nonprescription therapies/interventions (59% vs 66%) documented than PCPs’ patients. They more often received hormone therapy (HT) (76% vs 64% of patients with any prescription) and compounded HT (17% vs 7%) and less often received selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) (11% vs 19%) and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (2% vs 12%) than PCPs’ patients. Black cohosh was the most frequently documented nonprescription therapy by gynecologists (24%) and PCPs (35%); gynecologists more commonly documented Estroven (16% vs 10%). Compounded HT use was more common in the US Southeast and Southwest (~20%), and SSRI use was more common in the Northeast (22%) than other regions.
CONCLUSION: Prescribing patterns for menopausal symptoms vary by practitioner type and US region.
