Talking to Your Patients

Your patients will have many questions about menopause and decisions to make about treatments, and they’ll look to their health care professional for guidance.

Some women may be concerned about findings related to hormone therapy from the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study. You can discuss with your patients that, while there are risks associated with hormone therapy, you will review their symptoms and risk/benefit profiles with them before making any therapy decisions.

Read more about the risks and benefits of hormone therapy.

Estrogens and progestins should not be used for the prevention of cardiovascular disease or dementia.

The Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) study reported increased risks of myocardial infarction, stroke, invasive breast cancer, pulmonary emboli, and deep vein thrombosis in postmenopausal women (50 to 79 years of age) during 5 years of treatment with oral conjugated estrogens (CE 0.625 mg) combined with medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA 2.5 mg) relative to placebo.

The Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study (WHIMS), a substudy of WHI, reported increased risk of developing probable dementia in postmenopausal women 65 years of age or older during 4 years of treatment with oral conjugated estrogens plus MPA relative to placebo. It is unknown whether this finding applies to younger postmenopausal women.

Other doses of oral conjugated estrogens with MPA, and other combinations and dosage forms of estrogens and progestins were not studied in the WHI clinical trials and, in the absence of comparable data, these risks should be assumed to be similar. Because of these risks, estrogens with progestins should be prescribed at the lowest effective doses and for the shortest duration consistent with treatment goals and risks for the individual woman.

Estrogens and estrogens/progestins combined should not be used in women with undiagnosed abnormal genital bleeding; known, suspected, or history of breast cancer; known or suspected estrogen-dependent neoplasia; active deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, or history of these conditions; active or recent arterial thromboembolic disease; liver dysfunction or disease; or known or suspected pregnancy.

In clinical trials with CombiPatch, the most common side effects were breast pain, dysmenorrhea, and headache.

CombiPatch is indicated for women with an intact uterus for the treatment of moderate to severe vasomotor symptoms associated with menopause, and moderate to severe symptoms of vulvar and vaginal atrophy associated with menopause. When prescribing solely for the treatment of symptoms of vulvar and vaginal atrophy, topical vaginal products should be considered.



The information contained within this web site is appropriate for U.S. healthcare professionals only.

Available by prescription only.

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