Effect of Trigonella foenum (fenugreek) vaginal cream on vaginal atrophy in postmenopausal women

Background and objective: Menopause forms one-third of women's lives. During this period, many women continue their sexual activities. One of the most prevalent postmenopausal complications is vaginal atrophy whose symptoms could have destructive effects on the life quality among postmenopausal women. Complications of using estrogen hormone to improve these symptoms are inevitable. One of the objectives of the present study is the assessment of the vaginal cream of Fenugreek on vaginal inflammation of atrophic vaginitis in postmenopausal women.

Materials and methods: For assessment of the effect of fenugreek vaginal cream among postmenopausal women who suffer from vaginal atrophy, the present study was carried out in the form of a double-blind clinical trial among sixty postmenopausal women, mainly who had been referred to Health Center 1 located in the east of Ahvaz in 2017. All participants of the present study who were diagnosed with vaginal atrophy were assigned into two groups of 30 randomly. One of these groups received placebo and the other one fenugreek 5% vaginal cream for a period of 8 weeks. Symptoms related to vaginal atrophy were investigated by means of a 4-degree scale (none, mild, moderate, and severe) and maturation vaginal index (MVI) through preparing the vaginal smears technique at baseline and a period of 8 weeks after cytology and intervention experiment. Finally, the process of analyzing statistical data, at a statistical significance level of 0.05, was carried out by means of SPSS Software.

Results: The results of the present study demonstrated that the fenugreek vaginal cream treatment group experienced a significant improvement in vaginal atrophy symptoms compared to the onset of the study (P < 0.001).

Conclusion: Fenugreek vaginal cream was effective in treating vaginal atrophy; therefore, postmenopausal women are recommended to use this cream instead of synthetic estrogen to reduce the complications of this hormone.

Keywords: Fenugreek vaginal cream; menopause; vaginal atrophy.