In the previous years, women fought these menopause symptoms by hormone therapies containing conjugated equine estrogen. However, after this practice was denounced as increasing the risk of breast cancer, heart diseases, strokes, and Alzheimer's disease, they turned to alternative methods to overcome menopause discomforts. The best alternative has proved to be consuming isoflavones which are highly abundant in soy, especially genistein and daidzein.

Isoflavones are bioactive compounds that are interchangeable with phytoestrogens, which are plant estrogens. Although their forms do look like estrogens, isoflavones act very differently in the human body, and therefore, should not be considered similar to human estrogens. They are much weaker than naturally circulating human estrogens for they have approximately 1/1000th the biological activity of synthetic estrogens. Hence, they do not have estrogen-like effects inside our body. Not only do isoflavones lower the number of hot flashes that arise, but studies also show us that they cling to estrogen receptors and may block some of the negative effects that estrogen can bring to women, such as cancer cell growth.

Consuming soy foods at any age, especially during childhood and adolescence along with a healthy diet, prevents females from developing breast cancer. Eating soy foods early in life may be one of the factors that explains why Asian women have lower breast cancer rates. The breast cancer rate among Japanese women, who are known to consume much more soy compared to Western women, is only one-fifth of that of the US. In addition, recent research suggests that there is not an increased risk of breast cancer for post-menopausal women consuming soy foods.