The doctor who stops women ageing - menopause/fertility

www.cipd.co.uk/about/media/press/menopause-at-work

'The menopause transition can include a range of symptoms which, on average, last for four years. The CIPD's research surveyed 1,409 women experiencing menopause symptoms and was led by YouGov. Of those who were affected negatively at work, they reported the following issues:

Nearly two-thirds (65%) said they were less able to concentrate
More than half (58%) said they experience more stress
More than half (52%) said they felt less patient with clients and colleagues.
Nearly a third of women surveyed (30%) said they had taken sick leave because of their symptoms, but only a quarter of them felt able to tell their manager the real reason for their absence.'

I want facts and figures about a shocking number of women give up work due to menopause. Because you know, other factors come in as well.

Stop medicating women! Most women do not need hrt.

And of course, and entirely, there are a number of women who have frightening and life changing consequences of the menopause and some of it is in sync with mental health issues as well (which is entirely ignored, as per usual). I'm not saying that they should not get the treatment they need. Of course they should.

What pisses me off is that HRT is a pill, dished out a bit like Valium in the 60s, now Diazepam.

HRT is about medicating perfectly healthy women

That's my sense too.

I am though, extremely concerned for those women who do take it, who are now unable to get hold of it.

www.theguardian.com/society/2019/aug/24/hrt-shortage-uk-women

You sound Fermats like a rabid anti vaxxer

someone explaining the benefits to some women of HRT sounds like an anti vaxxer? Really.

The menopause can be really tough for a lot of women. Vaginal atrophy isn’t discussed enough and is under diagnosed - leaving a lot of women suffering unnecessarily.

Placemats vaginal atrophy is a thing. Yes you are belittling the changes that some women experience as a result of menopause. Just use some lube indeed.

If men went through all the shit women do there would be multiple treatments. With women it's all, oh its natural, it's your lot, put up with it. Debilitating periods, all the issues with pregnancy and childbirth, bf (here's a leaflet to tell you that you must or you're letting your child down, no we're not going to give you any practical support on the post natal ward or later as it costs too much) and menopause.

A shocking percentage of women give up work as a result of menopause. The possible symptoms are wide ranging and it's good for women to know about them rather than suffering in silence (but it's better all round if we get on with it and 'don't make a fuss').

I would love for there to be more research and assistance / treatments for the female specific things that are part of our lives.

I saw a news report on this with cancer sufferers which sounded great, a way maybe for young women to not lose fertility through treatment.

I can't access the article but seems this guy is focusing on keeping older women fertile. Male focus, male measure of what is important for women.

Most women I imagine will be well pleased to stop menstruating, it's the osteoporosis, hot and cold flushes, impact on sex and mood etc we want to be able to manage.

I agree, Boggles. The results of this are interesting - but it could turn out to be expensive quackery, it could turn out to be a repeat (god forbid) of the vaginal mesh scandal, or it could turn out to be a safer alternative to current forms of HRT. What we need are proper clinical trials (with proper and very ethical supervision), not a doctor with a god complex carrying out medical innovation via tabloid journalism.

Apologies for derailing the thread into treatment of menopause in general - I just get very riled by the attitude of "it's natural therefore you should embrace it", even if it's simultaneously natural and totally shit for you.

@FormerMediocreMale they propose (I say propose because it’s not been done before as far as I am aware) to implant the defrosted tissue into lymph nodes in arms pits to maximise hormonal output so wouldntnecessarily effect fertility. It’s supposed to be purely for the sake of delaying menopause without the use of HRT.

@placemats hrt is prescribed to prevent osteoporosis

Many people seem to forget that until recently it wasn’t the norm for women to live past menopause with life expectancy being so low. Likewise people seem to forget that many symptoms of ageing are deeply unpleasant and we shouldn’t shame women for trying to avoid it. However, this method is untested (baring a handful of women who have had the tissue harvested but not put back again and cancer survivors who enter premature menopause and receive a very different treatment to the one being sold). There is no proof that this will actually delay menopause let alone for the 20 years that he is promising. I looked into this when someone first told me about it a month ago. It seems like a con. You may £7-11k for what might only be a six year delay (or no delay at all).

I have never mentioned once Patriarchal Conspiracy stop fucking saying that.

I get you are upset that your spine might crumble like your mothers.

How can you possibly know that it would not have happened if she was on HRT?

You sound Fermats like a rabid anti vaxxer

Sorry Zazie my reply was to Fermats

I do agree with what you say though.

My mother's fucking spine crumbled due to post menopausal osteoporosis. I don't want to go the same way - and have medical grounds for thinking I would be at very high risk. Menopause is natural - so is dying in childbirth if you have a placenta praevia and no access to a CS. Natural doesn't always mean healthy. Menopause has severe adverse health effects for a non-negligible minority of women.

There is nothing feminist about telling women they have to suck up those adverse consequences because you think medical treatment is some massive patriarchal conspiracy to keep our fanjos fresh for men. In fact, denying women healthcare on the basis that it's part of a patriarchal conspiracy is every bit as bad as the genuinely patriarchal medical tendency to dismiss all menopausal symptoms as "trivial women's complaints."

Seriously?

You need to check what I'm saying. I never discussed those with surgery so extreme to the vagina it would lead to fusion, which, I stress is RARE. No HRT on this planet would fix that.

My concerns would be about the long-term effects of this. Have they be adequately studied? Or is this being done in a bit too much of an ego-fuelled rush for those kind of studies/safeguards.

My mum was on HRT for 12 years and died from really aggressive breast cancer. I’d be surprised if the two were not linked, especially as you’re not supposed to be on some forms HRT for over a decade. I’d be worried about similar types of consequences with this.

My mum suffered a lot of agony and anguish in the run up to her death. I’d hate to see others undertake a “safe” treatment and end up in the same place.

HRT is about medicating perfectly healthy women.

Yes, I am telling you exactly that, because that's exactly what you are doing by repeatedly claiming vaginal atrophy is simply a misogynistic myth about "dried up fannies" and cracking fatuous jokes about how the walls of your vagina touch. Don't want to be told you're belittling other women's health conditions, then don't do exactly that.

What if they had chemotherapy as a child?

Does this render them unable to have sex ever again?

It's nonsense.

Vaginal cancer means loss of the vagina.

Bladder cancer means that you may loose your clitoris.

Seriously Fermats? You are telling ME I'm belittling other women's health conditions?

YCFOTTFSOFAWYGTYCFOSM

What if they've lost their fertility due to chemo/radiation therapy for a cancer of some entirely different part of the body? Cancer is not one single disease, you know.

Women who have to loose their breasts, ovaries, uterus, tubes, and cervix due to cancer shouldn't be on hrt.

Not touching, placemats, fused together. Like abdominal adhesions following surgery. I don't get it? Are you being deliberately obtuse or are you getting some sort of weird kick out of belittling other women's health conditions?

Oh! And if I was giving birth for the first time from the age of 40 onward it would be considered a risky birth and most likely end up a CS because of twin birth.

I have had sex with numerous men and had three vaginal births.

Even 20 year old women sometimes need a bit of lubrication.

I wouldn't want to be fertile again, but if it could regulate the hormones that'd be great. What I understood was that they had to take tissue from pre-menopause ovary so I think it will be used first for women who will go in to a premature menopause for cancer treatment.

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