New Hormone Replacement Spray Offers Much Needed

Wellington, 18TH Mar

A groundbreaking new hormonal nasal spray now being trialled in New Zealand is expected to provide menopausal women with a simple, safe and effective option for hormone replacement therapy.

Dr Beverly Lawton, of the Wellington Menopause Clinic, says that the advantage of the nasal spray is that it provides a pulse of oestrogen in the same way as a woman’s ovaries.

The number of menopausal women in New Zealand using some form of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is low, about 15%. Dr Lawton attributes this figure to the difficulties surrounding the availability of HRT in New Zealand. “Most women simply suffer from symptoms of menopause which HRT can relieve,” Dr Lawton said.

Menopause, when menstruation stops and child bearing is no longer possible, is caused by a loss of the production of hormones by the ovaries and is often accompanied by hot flushes, night sweats, sleep disturbances, mood swings, loss of libido, headaches, vaginal dryness and joint and muscle pain.

The spray, developed by the French pharmaceutical company, Servier Laboratories, is already available to menopausal women in Europe and North America where earlier trials have proven the safety of the product know as Aerodiol.

“We are conducting the trial here in order to evaluate how New Zealand women respond to the product and identify and deal with any unexpected difficulties. We also want to know how it compares with HRT patches,” Dr Lawton said.

Dr Lawton says that they are aiming to recruit 80 women for the trial and currently have 32. Women who have not used hormone replacement therapy patches in the past can take part in the trial. Prior use of HRT in tablet form is fine.

Dr Lawton hopes that the trial will make HRT more accessible to New Zealand women.

“New Zealand women are interested in and desperately need an alternative to the existing delivery methods for HRT,” she concluded.

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