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Women Have Been Misled About Menopause NYT Article
Women Have Been Misled About Menopause NYT Podcast
ACOG’s FAQs for Menopause & Hormone Therap
What is Menopause and Perimenopause?
If you’ve been experiencing hot flashes, night sweats, a foggy feeling, mood changes, skin changes, hair loss, insomnia (not sleeping), vaginal dryness, low libido, irregular bleeding, and weight and body changes, you may be asking yourself: what is going on? Is this normal? Why is this so annoying?
First, let’s define menopause as one year of no bleeding. On average, most women hit this benchmark at 51 years old, but it can be affected by genetics, smoking, and whether you’ve had a hysterectomy. Perimenopause is the time leading up to menopause when our bodies are feeling the affects of changing and decreasing amounts of hormones (estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone). This can be ten to fifteen years… Ugh.
Is it normal? Yes. It is annoying? Yes. Is it preventable? No. Is it treatable? Maybe… Hopefully.
This natural event has been occurring forever and might be helpful to think of it as a sort of reverse puberty. It’s all about hormone changes. And for some women, just knowing this is normal and will someday pass is helpful. Does that mean that checking your hormones or taking hormones will fix it? Well, it can be complicated to answer that question but here are the basics:
If you are over the age 50, have symptoms of peri menopause, and no contraindications to hormone therapy (breast cancer, blood clots in legs/lungs, significant cardiac disease, liver disease); then YES! Most likely giving you estrogen (pill, patch, cream) and progesterone (if you have a uterus!) will help. Testosterone is very specific and can have irreversible side effects if not prescribed appropriately.
This is good news!
What about if you’re under 50? Well, we think so! But does require a little more conversation and ruling out other things such as thyroid disease. During this time hormones are fluctuating. Symptoms tend to fluctuate too and checking hormone levels is not usually helpful and ends up being costly for some patients.
We are sharing all of this because we can help. We want to share the risks and benefits of treating menopause and possibly perimenopause. we encourage you to ask your provider any questions you may have at your next appointment. We also want to encourage listening this this excellent audio regarding this topic and clicking through another helpful website with information on menopause:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/12/podcasts/the-daily/menopause-treatment-hormone-therapy.html
https://www.menopause.org/for-women/expert-answers-to-frequently-asked-questions-about-menopause
