Treatment of Vasomotor Symptoms of Menopause with Black Cohosh, Multibotanicals, Soy, Hormone Therapy, or Placebo

Figure 1.
Figure 1. Participant recruitment and retention, Herbal Alternatives for Menopause Trial (HALT).

Reasons for discontinuing therapy are not mutually exclusive. All participants received allocated intervention. *In the original enrolled plan, all participants were enrolled in 1 of 5 groups. †After publication of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) estrogen–progestin (E + P) trial (2), women were given the option of 4-arm (without conjugated equine estrogen [CEE]) or 5-arm randomization. ‡After publication of the WHI Memory Study (8, 9), randomization to CEE was stopped and only 4-arm randomization (that is, random assignment to herb or placebo, excluding hormone therapy) was used. BMD = bone mineral density; FSH = follicle-stimulating hormone; HT = estrogen with or without progestin; MPA = medroxyprogesterone acetate, 2.5 mg (women without a uterus were randomly assigned to CEE only); soy = counseling to increase dietary soy; TSH = thyroid-stimulating hormone.

This Article

  1. Ann Intern Med December 19, 2006 vol. 145 no. 12 869-879