Complementary Medicine Journal of Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery

Introduction: Vasomotor symptoms are the most common disorders in menopause, which is followed by heart discomfort especially palpitation. Recently, Interest of menopausal women has increased in alternative herbal medicines for alleviation these symptoms. Aim of this study was to investigate the effect of red clover on intensity of vasomotor symptoms and heart discomfort of healthy menopausal women between 50-59.\ud Methods: This tripled blinded clinical trial was carried out on 72 healthy menopausal women who were reffered to Abuzar screening clinic in Tehran and they randomly devided into two groups (A and B). The intervention group took 2 capsules daily containing 40 mg dried leaves of red clover for 30 days. The control group took two capsules containing 40 mg starch in the same way. The outcomes measured in this study were vasomotor symptoms and heart discomfort which obtained through Menopause Rating Scale.\ud Results: There was no statistical difference in demographic characteristics, vasomotor symptoms and heart discomfort, between two groups before intervention and two groups were equal. The intensity of vasomotor symptoms decreased from 55.5% to 34.72% in the intervention group and from 62.5% to 55.77% in the control group (P-value= 0.003). Also the intensity of heart discomfort declined after one month intervention(P-value= 0.01).\ud Conclusion: In the study, red clover compared with placebo significantly reduced the intensity of vasomotor symptoms and heart discomfort and it should be considered, there was no side effect in this study. So application of this supplement not only is suggested to alleviate the intensity of these symptoms, yet further studies to evaluate the effect of red clover on menopausal symptoms are recommended.\ud \u