Qualitative cross-cultural exploration of breast symptoms and impacts associated with hormonal treatments for menopausal symptoms to inform the development of new patient-reported measurement tools

Evaluation of the impact, treatment patterns, and patient and physician perceptions of vasomotor symptoms associated with menopause in Europe and the United States

“…Many women with bothersome VMS remain untreated or use nonprescription medications, herbal supplements or alternative therapies [15][16][17]. Factors influencing treatment decisions include safety and tolerability (e.g., breast cancer, stroke, venous thromboembolism, breast tenderness, vaginal bleeding) related to long-term HT use [18][19][20][21][22] and moderate efficacy of non-hormonal treatments [10]. Although previous studies have examined the burden of VMS associated with menopause [7,8], a more comprehensive understanding of VMS burden and patient/physician perspectives on its management is needed.…”

Conducting cross-cultural, multi-lingual or multi-country scale development and validation in health care research: A 10-step framework based on a scoping review

“…At the content validity step, which focused on whether the items adequately measure the domain (step two), some reported using expert panels or consensus groups to review their items, and subject experts were deemed important in ensuring all relevant topics were covered in the items. In Abraham et al [ 21 ] development of an oestrogen plus progestin therapies-related breast symptoms questionnaire, after items were generated from concept elicitation interviews with the target population, a group of measurement and clinical experts and linguists reviewed their items. The inclusion of linguists specifically ensured that items had cross-cultural validity, could be easily translated into the four countries of study, and were conceptually equivalent in other potential languages.…”

Association of menopausal vasomotor symptom severity with sleep and work impairments: a US survey

“…Although available treatments for VMS may provide sleep benefits, as well as symptom relief, about 50% of those with moderate VMS and about 61% of those with severe VMS in our study reported that they had never received treatment for VMS. Concerns about long-term safety of hormone therapy and moderate efficacy of available nonhormone treatment for VMS may be contributing to low usage rates of these therapies 45-50 . Therefore, new therapies that are safe and effective in reducing hot flashes and night sweats could be beneficial in improving sleep quality among women with VMS.…”

“…Concerns about long-term safety of hormone therapy and moderate efficacy of available nonhormone treatment for VMS may be contributing to low usage rates of these therapies. [45][46][47][48][49][50] Therefore, new therapies that are safe and effective in reducing hot flashes and night sweats could be beneficial in improving sleep quality among women with VMS.…”