Fenugreek and Fennel Seeds for Menopause Hot Flashes

I’ve done videos on foods for menopausal symptoms. What about spices? The nice thing about studying herbs and spices is that they can be so potent you can stuff them into pills to perform randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials. In this way, a half teaspoon of ground black cumin powder was found to significantly improve menopausal symptoms compared to placebo, but the effects may be limited to the psychological aspects, such as decreasing anxiety, improving quality of life, more vitality, and better mental health. But what about physical symptoms like hot flashes and night sweats? 

Fennel seeds aren’t actually seeds at all, but the whole little fruits of the fennel plant. You’ll typically see a bowl of fennel seeds, sometimes candy-coated, as you walk out of Indian restaurants. Beyond mouth freshening, chewing them can lead to a significant bump in nitric oxide production due to their nitrate content, which has a vasodilatory effect of opening up blood vessels. They are a cheap and easy way to carry a lightweight, nonperishable source of nitrates for activities like hiking, where pocketing beets and spinach may be less convenient.

Chewing fennel seeds could help maintain oxygen levels at high altitudes and help prevent H.A.P.E.—high altitude pulmonary edema, one of the leading killers of mountain climbers once you get more than a mile-and-a-half or so above sea level. Don’t confuse H.A.P.E. with H.A.F.E., though, which is caused by the expansion of gas at high altitudes—a condition known as high altitude flatus expulsion or, colloquially, “Rocky Mountain barking spiders.” Fennel seeds may help with that, too, as they’ve been used traditionally as a carminative, meaning a remedy for intestinal gas, but they also have hormonal effects. 

There have been cases reported of premature breast development among young girls drinking fennel seed tea a couple times a day for several months. Their estrogen levels were elevated, but after stopping the tea, their chests and hormone levels went back to normal. Fennel seeds can also increase breast milk production, treat painful periods as well as conventional drug therapies, and when incorporated into a topical cream, decrease unwanted hair growth in women. What about menopausal symptoms?

Women randomized to take about a quarter teaspoon of fennel seeds worth of essential oil twice a day for eight weeks experienced a significant drop in symptoms compared to placebo. This included improvements in hot flashes and night sweats, and other physical, psychological, and sexual symptoms. At week ten, two weeks after stopping, the symptoms had started creeping back but were still lower than baseline. The researchers conclude fennel “is an effective and safe treatment to reduce menopausal symptoms.” 

The spice fenugreek is another galactagogue. No, not another sci-fi reboot, a galactagogue is something that increases breast milk production in lactating mothers. One randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in which breastfeeding women took about a half teaspoon of both fenugreek and ground ginger, along with about a quarter of a teaspoon of turmeric every day doubled their milk production within a month. Other hormonal effects include an improvement in menstrual pain using half a teaspoon of fenugreek powder three times a day, taken the first three days of your period. What about menopausal symptoms? 

In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, the equivalent of one teaspoon of fenugreek twice a day significantly reduced the number of hot flashes and night sweats within four weeks compared to placebo, and symptoms of depression, insomnia, and vaginal dryness within seven weeks. Fenugreek can cut hot flashes and night sweat frequency in half within three months. These studies used proprietary fenugreek supplements, but just the plain powder seems to work as well at one and a half teaspoons a day.