2016 IMS recommendations on women’s midlife health and menopause hormone therapy

Abstract

The International Menopause Society (IMS) has produced these new 2016 recommendations on women’s midlife health and menopause hormone therapy to help guide health-care professionals in optimizing their management of women in the menopause transition and beyond. The term menopause hormone therapy has been used to cover therapies including estrogens, progestogens and combined regimens. Menopausal hormone therapy today is the most effective treatment for vasomotor symptoms and urogenital atrophy.

For the first time, the 2016 International Menopause Society recommendations now include grades of recommendations, levels of evidence and ‘good practice points’, in addition to section-specific references. Where possible, the recommendations are based on and linked to the evidence that supports them, unless good-quality evidence is absent. Particular attention has been paid to published evidence from 2013 onwards, the last time the International Menopause Society recommendations were updated. Databases have been extensively searched for relevant publications using key terms specific to each specialist area within menopause physiology and medicine. Information has also been drawn from international consensus statements published by bodies such as the International Menopause Society, the European Menopause and Andropause Society and the North American Menopause Society.

The recommendations have been produced by experts derived mainly from the International Menopause Society, with the assistance of key collaborators where deemed advantageous. In preparing these international recommendations, experts have taken into account geographical variations in medical care, prevalence of diseases, and country-specific attitudes of the public, medical community and health authorities towards menopause management. The variation in availability and licensing of menopause hormone therapy and other products has also been considered.