Therapies for the management of genitourinary syndrome of menopause

Introduction The genitourinary syndrome of menopause is a new term that describes various menopausal symptoms and signs including not only genital symptoms (dryness, burning, and irritation) and sexual symptoms (lack of lubrication, discomfort or pain, and impaired function), but also urinary symptoms (urgency, dysuria, and recurrent urinary tract infections). Methods We conducted a systematic scoping review of data in women therapies with genitourinary syndrome of menopause or vulvovaginal atrophy in peer-reviewed, English-language publications in the last 20 years. Results The terms vulvovaginal atrophy and atrophic vaginitis, which were generally used up until recently, had a limitation because they did not cover the full spectrum of symptoms and did not imply that the symptoms are related to a decreased sex steroid level in menopause. The concept of genitourinary syndrome of menopause was recently introduced and has been gaining widespread use. Since genitourinary syndrome of menopause may have a profound negative impact on the quality of life of postmenopausal women, patients should be made aware of these problems and treated with an appropriate effective therapy. Therefore, in this review we introduce therapies for this syndrome, both local and systemic, and discuss the importance of genitourinary syndrome of menopause comprehension and the need to have an active treatment of this syndrome in postmenopausal women. Conclusion The increasing number of therapies for menopausal symptoms opens up new options. In addition, new products have been designed and developed by pharmaceutical companies as new possibilities for patients who did not have any treatment available and also to improve compliance.