Menopause is that period in a woman's life when the body is in the process of changing and these changes are manifested through various symptoms like hot flushes, mood changes, depression, insomnia and night sweating.

A woman in menopausal stage can opt for hormonal replacement therapy is she wants to alleviate the many symptoms of menopause. Hormonal replacement therapy has been found effective in treating menopausal women who became depressed.

There are sectors who believe that hormonal replacement therapy can be used to treat other complications arising from female menopause like diabetes, osteoporosis and heart ailments.

However, some women experiencing menopause do not go for hormone replacement therapy because of the possible side effects of the said treatment. There are those who believe that women taking hormonal replacement therapy have high risks of developing breast cancer. Hormonal replacement therapy has also been blamed for blood clot formations resulting to heart disease.

There are experts, including Dr. John Lee, who believe that hormone replacement therapy expose menopausal women to greater health risks than if they were not taking the therapy. The risk of getting cancer is one of the reason s why most women experiencing menopause opt for natural and alternative treatments for the many symptoms of menopause.

During menopause, the production of a woman's estrogen and progesterone levels become erratic. These hormones play important roles in maintaining the proper functioning of a woman's body like bone strengthening and blood cholesterol level maintenance.

During menopause, the production of these hormones decline and this causes bone problems and other ailments. Hormone replacement therapy can bring back the proper levels of these hormones in women and can prevent the risk of getting various menopause-related diseases.

While estrogen replacement has been found effective as a treatment for many years, medical research has shown that it increase a woman's chances of getting breast and uterine cancer. This led the way to the addition of progestin to hormone treatments.

Women who eat the proper food and lead healthy lifestyles are the ones who are most probably able to experience menopause normally, even without hormone replacement therapy. For those who are thinking of availing of this therapy, it is important to talk this over with their doctors as the latter can give them the pros and cons of getting HRT.