"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?

OMG, I've developed plantar fasciitis and allergies, including hay fever, in the last few years. Is it just coincidental that it all came on once I was menopausal?

It may be a natural process but in 1841 the average life expectancy for a woman was 42-3. In 1900 it was 53. It wasn't until about 100 years ago that the majority of women could expect to reach the age of 60. In Greek and Roman times most people were dead before 35.

Pointing out that menopause is a natural process is irrelevant. For 99% of human history, only a tiny number of women would have survived long enough to experience it. Once we're no longer fertile, nature isn't bothered whether we live or die.

This makes me nervous. I'm mid 30s, and started showing symptoms over the last few weeks. I've an appointment for next week with the gp, and usually my gp is great, full tests and investigations, but I have to admit that I'm a bit worried. So far, 3 close friends or family have told me that it couldn't be menopause related as I'm too young.

Yesterday, I was like the antichrist. My teenage dc, who are usually the ones making dramatic exits after being asked to lift a plate or wash up, said I was very different to normal. Didn't help that dp kept asking stupid questions. And the hot flushes and night sweats mean that I'm not sleeping well.

Anyone had an easy menopause?

Apart from the migraines and a few power surges I reckon I got off fairly lightly. I'm 63 and haven't had a period for 13 years.

yep. All of that.

This isn't accurate, although it is a common misconception. High infant and child mortality is the main reason for the low life expectancy, with childbirth removing a few more years. It doesn't mean that there weren't many old people about.

My Mum reckons she sailed through the menopause. She's in her early seventies now, has anxiety that has been increading since her 50s, she's got bladder problems and vaginal atrophy, which meant she couldn't recently have an examination. She's long since given up on sex, but yeah...she sailed through the menopause 🤔 I do wonder about women who are in their 50s and claim to have sailed through it because they are fine and haven't had a period for 12mths.

It is obvious from the bulk of the replies that very few people have actually read the article they are so outraged by!

Which was written by four women, all postmenopause in age.

Yes, I didn't seem to have major hot flushes and certainly not the night sweats a lot of women suffer from. Nor the flooding issues before my periods finally stopped. I've had to sleep in a separate room for the last eight years because I get very warm at night. For years I'd sleep under a summer weight duvet with the windows open even when there was frost outside. I sleep far better when it's really cold. My partner needs PJs and a heavy duvet even in the summer!

That's the galling thing. I came through the difficult bit fairly easily, only now to end up feeling half-crippled by aches and arthritis and a dozen other non-critical but debilitating issues.

I have found this research reassuring. It shows benefit of combined HRT

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=hrt+steel&btnG=#d=gs_qabs&t=1655419706744&u=%23p%3D7yhEsPhCAagJ

That's the galling thing. I came through the difficult bit fairly easily, only now to end up feeling half-crippled by aches and arthritis and a dozen other non-critical but debilitating issues.

Joint pain is the main reason I take HRT.

No what they are saying is even worse. It's the normal trope peddled at women. Oh those neurotic women worrying too much about the menopause, they are making it worse for themselves. It's much better that they are not informed about their own health, bodies and treatment options; keep them in the dark and that'll stop them worrying and seeking "unnecessary" treatment and, god forbid, challenging doctors and advocating for themselves. No just stay uninformed and quiet like good little girls.

Internalised misogyny, medical gaslighting and the doctor god-complex at its finest.

It's all about the money, isn't it?

Loads of news items about HRT shortages a few months ago, and now this.
We haven't got it therefore you don't need it.

I am all for normalizing menopause, the fact that it is different for different women and peoples needs will be unique to them. But rather than over medicalizing, my friends and I have had the opposite experience. I had 2 years of debilitating symptoms which severely impacted my work and led to me taking a demotion before I found a GP who gave me a prescription for HRT. It has totally changed my life - I didnt even know quite how bad it was until I felt so much better. I have heard sniffy comments on the radio about the 'Davina' effect implying that all these middle aged women are stampeding in to surgeries because we watched telly, and am also aware that it has taken years to even try to sort out the HRT shortages. This is more of the same attitude to womens health that tells them to have IUD insertions with no pain relief, or does not listen to pregnant women about their wishes. Or underdiagnoses heart problems in women i.e. we should just get on with things and not bother doctors. Yet every man who cant get it up is top priority.

My understanding is that without HRT there is a risk of bone density loss and osteoporosis, among other things. So it's surely not "over-medicalising" any more than taking tablets to.lower blood pressure is. Even from a purely financial perspective, surely HRT is better value for money than treating osteoporosis and broken bones.

Wow! So we’ve gone straight from menopause being barely even recognized by gps as requiring any medical support.whatsoever. And zoomed straight to over medication concerns.
Havent women missed out on a few chapters in the middle, where gps are properly trained in women’s health and we get adequate meds and care when required?

You need to read the current NHS advice about HRT and its benefits.

I really dont think 2 studies on some women in Australia in the 80s and early 2000s have any relevance to me or countless other menopausal women in 2022. Unlike them I suspect, and unlike my mother, I am hitting menopause at the peak of my career, with a very demanding job, and children still at home, including one still at primary school. I'm quite sure I could manage without HRT if I could relax at home during the day in my own like my mother did, without being asked ro do anything taxing, physically or mentally and no financial burdens or obligations, no commuting etc.

But I have a very different life and I know that I will be working full time for many years to come. Hence I have started HRT almost pre-emptively at 50 in peri, with only fairly minor symptoms, more for the psychological side of things. I was suffering from anxiety and rage and frankly, I can't function in my life in 2022 with brain fog, confusion, achy joints and not being on the ball mentally. I also look at the women of my mother's generation and the incidences of depression and dementia in women that just didn't have cause to exercise their brains much post-menopause and I just cannot risk that. I also can't spend all day on zoom and teams managing hot flushes.

So I'm happy to try a bit of medicalisation. It's early days but I feel like I am protecting my future.

A soon to be 65 year old perspective. I thought I sailed through menopause but suddenly found myself faced with vaginal atrophy which can be an unpleasant experience. It's not nice to have your bits, including your clitoris, shrivel up in front of you! Then I entered a sexualising relationship after many years abstinence since my last foray into sex and relationships. It was very painful and I was bleeding quite a bit. Pain continued to be an issue. I am now on the equivalent of vagifem and this helps. However my womb is still intact and I understand I should have a Mirena coil fitted to help counter against womb cancer. I don't know where I stand re testosterone.

However my womb is still intact and I understand I should have a Mirena coil fitted to help counter against womb cancer.

This is incorrect. Talk to your doctor (or if they told you this, get a new one!), and read the threads on Vagifem and other vaginal estrogen products, like Ovestin cream, in the Menopause board.

in 1841 the average life expectancy for a woman was 42-3. In 1900 it was 53. It wasn't until about 100 years ago that the majority of women could expect to reach the age of 60. In Greek and Roman times most people were dead before 35.

I'm not disagreeing with your wider point about longer life expectancy but the figures you quote don't say what you think they do.

These ages aren't the ages most women could expect to die at that time. They are a mean age, influenced by infant mortality. So in fact, while in the 1850s, life expectancy was 42 at birth if you lived past 5, your life expectancy rose to 57, and more than 10% of the population lived to over 80.

Another (sad) example of how the figures work is that in 1849 in Ireland life expectancy fell to just 14. This was due to horrific effects of the Great Famine changing the mean age, but did not mean that most people only lived to 14 - if you were in a town or area unaffected by the Famine you could expect to live to the usual age, past 5.

Sorry cross posted with @BinToHellAndBack !

I am going through the menopause, the menopause causes some symptoms but it’s manageable for me without medication, my MS causes me a lot more difficulty tbh.

This article has REALLY REALLY pissed me off. GP's have been failing women re HRT, and the Davina programme criticised them correctly.

I shall file this with the recent suggestion that less women use gas and air for giving birth as nitrous oxide is terribly bad for the environment. Obviously it didn’t mention the significant usage by agriculture - that’s essential so don’t touch it, but women’s pain relief for a few hours, perhaps several time in their life? That’s how we are killing the planet.