"Doctors warn against over-medicalising menopause"

[flashbac]

"Writing in the British Medical Journal they said there was an urgent need for a more realistic and balanced narrative which actively challenges the idea that menopause is synonymous with an inevitable decline in women’s health and wellbeing..."

www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jun/15/doctors-warn-against-over-medicalising-menopause-after-uk-criticism

I must admit, the raising awareness of how shit the menopause can be has created some worry about my impending menopause, so much so that I've decided against a career change in my 40s.

Are we making too much of a big deal and being overly negative? Or are these doctors just being patronising? Anyone had an easy menopause?

Either way your body still needs oestrogen.

Clearly it doesn’t or it would continue to produce it. It’s needed for fertility, prepubescent and postmenopausal females aren’t fertile so oestrogen isn’t needed. Those stages, incidentally, comprise half your life if you live into your 80s. The evangelism around HRT on this thread is making me feel quite uncomfortable.

That doesn't say HRT protects against dementia.

This paragraph is quite clear Until there is better evidence, the potential benefits of HRT as a way to reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease do not outweigh the potential risks of HRT, which includes an increased risk of certain types of cancer, heart disease and stroke.

Just found the thread again after reading the first few pages this morning. Do we know if the women who wrote the piece actually took or take HRT themselves?

I think if anything menopause is under-medicated, and I say that as someone who has had an easy-peasy menopause with no more symptoms than some hot flushes at night and bad periods for a couple of years. Why should women who have it so much worse not be taken seriously and get help just because women like me exist? So many of my friends have really struggled.

Well I'm 54 and I've had a really crap time of it over the past 10 years health wise which I only recently pieced together as being menopause related. Having said that, HRT is not a panacea, it doesn't work for everyone. It's definitely also worth looking at non medicalised approaches such as nutrition etc.

Good post by the Menopause Doctor on Instagram saying

’why are we arguing over menopause- what does it achieve?’

Fully agree with this in respect to this thread…

I’m loving my HRT patches. I’d given up on sleeping for 8 hrs ever again. Also felt hideously anxious and had dry eyes. My patches have really, really helped me. I’m 51 and am still having regular periods (and was before I started the HRT). They’ve made my life better and I’m grateful. I work 6 days a week so I need my energy.

I was very lucky and had an easy menopause.

i think if you read an article linked to it this is a very old piece of research. Someone linked to a comment on it. However ,does it really matter ? If men had written it is it less believable because they haven't had a menopause?

😂😂😂😂

Exactly.

True

I don’t get why posters get so worked up.

These threads don’t need to go the way they do with unusual amounts of upset

it’s just information sharing, it shouldn’t make people lash out

To me, this feels like just as people are really starting to talk about the menopause and understand the implications for women's health, this article tries to shut that all down.

Fuck that.

It's not trying to shut it down
It's trying to add sone balance
Pointing out that by no means all women experience problems

If you don't understand that most women are fine then you don't understand it

Don't you understand that the current message - "older women are useless hormonal messes " - is as unhelpful as ignoring menopause

Our bodies naturally produced oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone before meno so why anyone assumes you don't need those 'adding back' baffles me.

After menopause, our bodies continue to produce estrogen, albeit in smaller amounts. It is produced in the ovaries, even after menopause, by the adrenal glands, and in the fatty tissues.

This is a fact that I think more women should be aware of.

Our bodies also continue to produce slightly lower levels of progesterone and testosterone post-menopause.

I had brain fog. Being a self employed professional wasn't easy, but I got through it.

My other symptom was flooding but my periods were about 6 monthly for 3 years. I was offered help by my GP but recommended I didn't if possible. In the end, due to the long timeframes, I coped using regularly changed thick pads and incontinence pants 24/7. A horrible time, but again do-able because there was so much time in between.

On talking to friends I seemed to do OK.

To be honest, I've just lost my Mum, and I'd say this grief is as bad if not worse in terms of career work. I think if you have a career, whoever you are, these things will have to be negotiated when they happen depending on how they affect you, as so little can be accurately predicted.

They can f**k right off. I’m here at 4am wide awake, because my face is so hot. I’m going to be cranky again tomorrow because it’s also my third night in a row of disturbed sleep. I’d already decided to call Gp on Monday, this is affecting my everyday functioning. I don’t go to the doctor unless something is wrong!

I'm guessing if men gave birth and went through menopause there would be more medical support available. Same with contraception I can't imagine men putting up with the side effects. It's frustrating how little value is placed on women in society.

I doubt that because most men won’t see a doctor unless a limb falls off. They are most medicine adverse people on the planet. 😂

How could CBT possibly work for symptoms caused by hormone deficiency?

What I could imagine it might do is allow someone to cope with some symptoms eg anxiety.

However, where there's an organic cause (peri menopause & hormone fluctuations) no one should have to cope with it.

we also need the mental health care to manage the psychological fall out of menopause.

Seriously, what's the psychological fall out of the menopause?

If you've got one of those men it is a nightmare. My DH is in extreme pain most of the time, when he actually takes his painkillers as directed his life, and mine, is so much better but he will frequently be moaning in pain, unable to move but won't take it. His type 2 diabetes isn't managed at all, the doctor has just given up, we plan every journey with public toilets in mind and I think there is something seriously wrong with his stomach and/or bowels.

I'm not sure that even a limb falling off would spring him into action.

It depends on your attitude to medication in general and the balance between medicine improving your symptoms v possible side effects. Look at antibiotics for children for example, some parents want ABs for very minor illnesses for their child, others choose not to use them and let their child heal naturally. Some people choose not to use conventional medicine unless absolutely necessary.

There's no comparison.

If parents want ABs for minor illnesses a good GP will not prescribe them - they only work in bacterial infections, not viral. Sometimes a bacterial infection will develop from a virus so that's the potential grey area.

If an AB is warranted however, the child will not 'heal naturally'. 🙄

With HT, if you are deficient in hormones such that it is caused a negative effect on you, then HT (hormone therapy, rather than replacement, which is strictly more correct) is needed, and no amount of natural therapies or psychological treatments will help that.

Not all women require it.

with respect, i have done the research. And found nothing to clarify that in the absence of any symptoms HRT is beneficial.

Perfect. Read my posts. That's exactly what I said 🤷🏻‍♀️ if I had no symptoms I also wouldn't take HT.

There are several

• the realisation you can’t have any more DC and that phase of your life is over causes many women to grieve


• cope with menopause related anxiety because your body is changing


• strategies to work around brain fog


• countering our youth worshipping culture that makes menopausal women invisible and worth less.


• feelings of embarrassment of flooding, hot flashes, etc in public/at work


• the uncertainty because menopause is unpredictable with no sure end date

Im not saying these should replace HRT/medication but that these should be offered alongside as a holistic approach to support both the physical and mental aspects of going through menopause.