THE MENOPAUSAL SYNDROME

Abstract

Up to a few years ago the medical profession had little to offer the woman suffering from the menopausal syndrome. Treatment consisted chiefly of sedatives and psychotherapy. Discovery of the estrogenic hormone of the ovary and, more recently, the commercial production of more potent preparations of estrogen are radically changing the physician's point of view. Kaufmann¹has recently stated that therapeutic resourcesin this field have been improved during the past few years to a degree which a short time ago would have been considered impossible. In all, I have observed 1,000 patients in a period of six years. To insure uniformity of interpretation of results of treatment I compiled all the histories and myself observed all the patients. The series includes 841 cases of natural menopause and 159 cases of artificial menopause. The data on this series are given in table 1. <h3>INCIDENCE</h3> It is difficult to estimate