For decades, both modern and natural medicine have focused on the symptoms and health concerns of women as they transition through menopause. Menopause is defined as the time of the final menstrual period, followed by 12 months of amenorrhea (lack of menstrual flow). Post-menopause describes the period following the final menses. With the lack of a menstrual cycle in the rearview mirror, the attention needs to shift to more pressing and sometimes life-threatening health concerns such as cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, weight management, genitourinary health, and brain fog. Today’s blog will focus on an area of women’s health that is often overlooked and rarely spoken about Genitourinary Health.

Genitourinary Health

The genitourinary syndrome of menopause (GSM) is a relatively new term. GSM is a chronic, progressive, vulvovaginal, sexual, and lower urinary tract condition characterized by a broad spectrum of signs and symptoms. Most of these symptoms can be attributed to the lack of estrogen that characterizes menopause. The major clinical manifestations look something like this: Vaginal dryness, vaginal/pelvic pain, decreased arousal, orgasm, and desire, loss of libido, urgency incontinence, reoccurring urinary tract infections, and more.[i]

Let’s examine some of the clinically studied ingredients that can improve overall genitourinary health in women.

Cranberry- reduces the risk of symptomatic, culture-verified UTIs in women with recurrent UTIs[ii]

Probiotics- Probiotics reduce the prevalence of reoccurring UTIs and support GSM.[iii]  Compared with estrogen alone, estrogen combined with probiotics significantly improved GSM symptoms, mainly vaginal dryness, painful intercourse, and increased vaginal health scores.[iv]

Genopause®- Studies with Genopause® show a reduction of menopausal symptoms, i.e., hot flashes, night sweats, and sweating. In addition, other less discussed items, such as accomplishing more tasks, improvements in mood, patience, stamina, vaginal dryness, sleep, and avoidance of intimacy compared to the placebo, were also seen as secondary endpoints. [v] [vi]

Libifem®- Libifem® works excellently for women by supporting healthy hormone levels (estradiol and testosterone ratios) and has increased sexual arousal, desire, frequency, and satisfaction in healthy women. [vii]

Testofen®- Testofen® studies show it helps support healthy testosterone levels, promotes sexual desire and vitality, and reduces recovery time following sexual activity.  All are beneficial for our topic.

Tesnor™– Tesnor is unique because it blends two botanicals (cocoa bean and pomegranate peel).  Studies with Tesnor show it helps increase testosterone levels.

References

[i] Angelou K, Grigoriadis T, Diakosavvas M, Zacharakis D, Athanasiou S. The Genitourinary Syndrome of Menopause: An Overview of the Recent Data. Cureus. 2020 Apr 8;12(4):e7586. doi: 10.7759/cureus.7586. PMID: 32399320; PMCID: PMC7212735.

[ii] Williams G, Hahn D, Stephens JH, Craig JC, Hodson EM. Cranberries for preventing urinary tract infections. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2023 Apr 17;4(4):CD001321. Doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD001321.pub6. Update in: Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2023 Nov 10;11:CD001321. PMID: 37068952; PMCID: PMC10108827.

[iii] Petricevic L., Unger F. M., Viernstein H., Kiss H. (2008). Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of oral lactobacilli to improve the vaginal flora of postmenopausal women. Eur. J. Obstet Gynecol Reprod. Biol. 141 (1), 54–57. doi:  10.1016/j.ejogrb.2008.06.003

[iv] Mei Z, Li D. The role of probiotics in vaginal health. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2022 Jul 28;12:963868. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2022.963868. PMID: 35967876; PMCID: PMC9366906.

[v] Steels, Elizabeth, et al.  “A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial evaluating safety and efficacy of an ayurvedic botanical formulation in reducing menopausal symptoms in otherwise healthy women.” Journal of Herbal Medicine 11 (2018): 30-35.‍

[vi] Steels, E., Steele, M., Harold, M., Adams, L. & Coulson, S. “A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial evaluating safety and efficacy of an ayurvedic botanical formulation in reducing menopausal symptoms in otherwise healthy women.” 2018, Journal of Herbal Medicine.

[vii]Rao, Amanda, et al. “Influence of a specialized Trigonella foenum‐graecum seed extract (libifem), on testosterone, estradiol and sexual function in healthy menstruating women, a randomized placebo-controlled study.” Phytotherapy Research 29.8 (2015): 1123-1130.