Evaluating the effect of fennel soft capsules on the quality of life and its different aspects in menopausal women: a randomized clinical trial

Background & Aim: Menopause is one of the natural phases of women’s life. At this phase, due to the large fluctuations in hormones, undesirable physical, mental and sexual symptoms would occur that have negative effects on the quality of life of women. Due to the side effects of hormonal therapy, many women would prefer complementary medicine and especially herbal medicine. The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of fennel on the quality of life in menopausal women . Methods & Materials: This randomized triple-blind clinical trial was conducted on 90 menopausal women aged 45-60 years in Tehran. Participants were randomly allocated into two groups of fennel and placebo. The participants in the fennel group received oral soft capsules containing 100mg of fennel twice a day for 8 weeks and women in the placebo group received the same doze of placebo capsules containing 100mg of sunflower oil. The measured outcomes in the present study were the quality of life in menopausal women and its different aspects including vasomotor, socio-psychological, physical and sexual aspects which were measures using Menopause-Specific Quality of Life (MENQOL) questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS14. Results: After 8 weeks of intervention, covariance analysis showed a significant difference in the score of quality of life and its four measured aspects between the two studied groups (for quality of life, vasomotor aspect, physical aspect and socio-psychological aspect: p < 0.001, for sexual aspect: p=0.013). In the fennel group, the score of quality of life and its aspects had a significant decrease after the intervention compared to before the intervention (p < 0.001). In the placebo group the scores of quality of life and socio-psychological, physical and sexual aspects had a significant decrease after the intervention (p < 0.05) but the score of vasomotor aspect was increased . Conclusions: The present study showed that the fennel could decrease the symptoms of menopause with no serious side effects and consequently improve menopausal women’s quality of life.