Bioidentical Progesterone Cream for Menopause-Related Vasomotor Symptoms: Is it Effective?

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the efficacy of bioidentical progesterone cream in the treatment of menopause-related vasomotor symptoms.DATA SOURCESA systematic search (from time of inception to September 2012) of PubMed, EMBASE, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, International Journal of Pharmaceutical Compounding, Cochrane, and CINAHL was conducted using the terms progesterone, vasomotor symptoms, night sweats, hot flash or flush, and randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Hand-searching of citations from relevant articles was also performed.STUDY SELECTION AND DATA EXTRACTIONArticles selected for inclusion described RCTs evaluating the use of bioidentical progesterone cream for the treatment of menopause-related vasomotor symptoms. Studies included were placebo controlled and participants were postmenopausal women experiencing vasomotor symptoms.DATA SYNTHESISSearching identified 3 published RCTs. Only one study, which used a bioidentical progesterone cream specifically compounded for the trial, found that th...