Menopausal hormone therapy is prescription medicine to help relieve your menopause symptoms, such as hot flashes and vaginal dryness, if they are severe enough to disrupt your daily life. Menopausal hormone therapy is sometimes called hormone therapy or hormone replacement therapy.

During menopause, your ovaries make very low levels of the hormones estrogen and progesterone. Menopausal hormone therapy replaces some of the hormones no longer made by your ovaries with artificial estrogen and progesterone.

Menopausal hormone therapy can help with hot flashes and other menopause symptoms. It is usually taken as a pill each day. You can also get estrogen or estrogen plus progesterone menopausal hormone therapy as a skin patch. Like all medicines, menopausal hormone therapy has risks. If you decide to take it, use the lowest dose for the shortest time needed. Other types of menopausal hormone therapy, called topical hormone therapy, do not treat hot flashes but can help with vaginal dryness.

There are many different brands of menopause hormone therapy. Read more about and find a list of FDA-approved hormone therapies.