Rahimikian F, et al. – A randomized, triple–blind, placebo–controlled trial is carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of fennel in the management of menopausal symptoms in postmenopausal women. The outcome of this study suggests fennel is a successful and safe treatment to decrease menopausal symptoms in postmenopausal women without serious side effects. More clinical trials with larger populations are required to confirm this result.

Methods

• For this study, they designed a triple–blind, placebo–controlled trial.
• This study was conducted on 90 postmenopausal women aged 45 to 60 years in Tehran.
• All the participants were randomly assigned into two groups.
• Total 45 patients were allotted into the treatment group and the same number of patients were into the placebo groups.
• The participants received 2 months of treatment with soft capsules containing 100 mg fennel or a placebo (2 per day for each group).
• The participants were followed for 2 weeks post intervention to evaluate the continuance of the impact of the intervention.
• The Menopause Rating Scale (MRS) questionnaire was utilized to evaluate changes in menopausal symptoms at baseline and at 4, 8, and 10 weeks after onset of intervention.

Results

• The groups recorded similar mean scores on the MRS questionnaire before intervention.
• In this study, the treatment group demonstrated a major reduce in the mean MRS score after intervention.
• The outcomes of the Friedman test demonstrated major differences between the mean score at baseline and those at 4, 8, and 10 weeks after onset of intervention in the treatment group (P < 0.001), whereas there were no significant differences in the placebo group.
• When the fennel and the placebo groups were compared, the independent t test displayed significant differences in mean scores between groups at 4, 8, and 10 weeks (2 weeks postintervention; P < 0.001).