Background: Menopausal disorders impose significant socioeconomic burdens worldwide, with declining hormone replacement therapy (HRT) usage following safety concerns from the Women’s Health Initiative study. This has increased interest in traditional Korean medicine (TKM) and integrative approaches for menopausal symptom management.Objective: To analyze real-world treatment patterns and healthcare utilization among women with menopausal disorders, comparing TKM monotherapy with combined TKM-Western medicine approaches using nationwide health insurance claims data.Methods: This retrospective cohort study analyzed 9 years (2015-2023) of Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service data for 71,381 women diagnosed with menopausal disorders. Patients were categorized into TKM monotherapy and combined TKM-Western medicine groups. Treatment patterns, medication usage, and clinical characteristics were compared between groups.Results: HRT usage rates maintained 15-18% levels with recent decline. The combined therapy group showed significantly higher treatment duration (707.8 vs. 55.3 days), visits (15.5 vs. 5.7), and HRT usage (78.6% vs. 6.2%) compared to TKM monotherapy. Comorbidity prevalence was higher in the combined group: depression (17.7% vs. 11.1%), sleep disorders (22.6% vs. 16.1%), and osteoporosis (17.3% vs. 13.6%). Acupuncture was used in 90.9% of TKM patients, predominantly in combination with cupping (71.9%) and thermal therapy (61.6%). The most common combination was acupuncture+cupping+thermal therapy (26.8%). Western medicine prescriptions were dominated by analgesic-antipyretics (73.4%), gastrointestinal medications (71.3%), and psychotropic drugs (30.9%).Conclusions: This study revealed distinct healthcare utilization patterns between treatment groups, suggesting that combined therapy patients represent a more complex, treatment-refractory population requiring long-term, multifaceted care. TKM monotherapy patients showed preference for non-pharmacological treatments with shorter treatment durations. These findings support the need for personalized, integrated treatment strategies based on patient characteristics and symptom complexity. Future research should evaluate clinical outcomes and establish evidence-based guidelines for integrative menopausal care within healthcare systems.
Park et al. (Sun,) studied this question.