Use of medicinal and phytotherapy plants in climate and menopause

• Autor(a) principal: Oliveira, Ana Katarina Dias de
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Oliveira, Kalyane Kelly Duarte de, Souza, Lara Barbosa de, Lins, Rejane Helena Pereira
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Research, Society and Development
• Texto Completo: https://rsdjournal.org/index.php/rsd/article/view/18752
• topic: Climacteric; Phytotherapy; Menopause; Medicinal plants.; Climaterio; Fitoterapia; Menopausia; Plantas medicinales.; Climatério; Fitoterapia; Menopausa; Plantas medicinais.

Objective: to investigate the use of medicinal plants in the treatment of climacteric symptoms, identifying which medicinal plants are most used and for which symptoms, to investigate the relationship between popular use and scientific recommendation of these plants. Methodology: descriptive study, with a quantitative approach, with women aged 45 to 59 years who presented some symptoms of menopause, did not experience early menopause or due to induction of surgical procedures. Results: of the total of 85 participants, 95.3% (n=81) had hot flashes, followed by irritability, vaginal dryness and insomnia which corresponded to 57.6% (n=49) 49.4% (n=42 ) and 49.4% (n=42) respectively. 41.1% (n=35) participants use some type of plant or herbal medicine in combination or not to treat symptoms. 18.8% (n=16) use allopathic or hormonal drugs and 58.9% (n=28) do not use anything. Plants indicated for insomnia and anxiety, such as chamomile, capim santo and lemon balm were the most mentioned by the participants, some such as cinnamon mentioned in the research as a tranquilizer have no scientific support for this purpose. All mentioned herbal medicines had scientific backing. The prescription of phytotherapeutic drugs by health professionals took place mainly in the consultations carried out at the outpatient clinic of the Faculty of Medicine. Final considerations: although many women have symptoms of the climacteric, it is noticed that few have knowledge about herbal medicines and medicinal plants for this purpose, most use plants in the form of tea for insomnia and anxiety without knowing the relationship of these symptoms with the climacteric and not all substances used have scientific backing.