To be absolutely sick of the ‘natural menopause is good’ narrative!

[Lightsideofthemoon]

This article was all over the media yeaterday:
https://unherd.com/2024/03/has-hrt-propaganda-misled-women/

It makes me so angry! Why is it that suddenly seeking treatment for symptoms in menopause being framed like this? In no other area of health is it considered acceptable to not seek treatment if you have debilitating symptoms. It’s utter misogyny.

Its ok for men in mid life to get treatment for their erectile dysfunction but women, ‘battle on through with some yoga and vitamins and stop complaining’

It reminds me a bit of the slightly toxic NCT ‘natural births and breastfeeding’ are the best way making any women who had a medical birth and couldn’t breastfeed an utter failure.

How is this narrative acceptable for women’s Heath? Menopause is absolutely fucking awful for some women - if you sail through with no symptoms, all power to you, but HRT is a lifesaver for many women.

@EarringsandLipstick i am not implying that at all. What I am saying is that there was more to it - she wasn’t always a particularly kind person in her dealings with others either.

And there are quite a few of us who can't take HRT. I had a radical hysterectomy for cervical cancer. This removes ovaries as well. There was never any talk of giving me HRT. Fortunately! (in a way) I didn't get too many issues with menopause and was mainly through it by time I was diagnosed but many other women aren't and seems only the much younger ones ( under 40) are given HRT. Believe it's considered high risk for something

Absolutely!

I got the menopause at 42.

I was slowly getting osteoporosis because my female GP didn't feel I was old enough to be tested for the menopause, what with being 42.

I dropped incrementally every day, until I could no longer walk up the stairs at the end of the day. I was in agony the whole day, trying to do my job taking more and more painkillers to get through it.

I was Head Gardener at a city farm at the time. I walked thousands upon thousands of steps. I only got HRT at 49 after a year's worth of fitbit proof that I was doing exercise and getting no sleep.

The male doctor who prescribed HRT to me, got me the FSH tests which were 95, when the agreed level of 'hitting menopause' is 30. I think it was 25 at the time.

And he sent me for an urgent DEXA scan, which showed osteoporosis. After 3 years on HRT I had dropped back into healthy bone levels. I'm going to fight having access to it to my dying breath.

Honestly, I am sick to death of this narrative that everyone on HRT is just after an easy life.

A well written and balanced article. It's definitely not misogynistic. As someone who was diagnosed with breast cancer in my 30s and with two gene mutations, HRT was never going to be an option.

I've managed Menopause with diet, yoga, exercise and meditation.

If HRT works for you, great, but it's not the only option.

what now? Women who are being threatened, intimidated and bullied on a daily basis need to be kind? Woah.

Honestly, I am sick to death of this narrative that everyone on HRT is just after an easy life

yeah, I don't really get that either. I don't know of a single person who wasn't desperate for some relief when they finally got HRT. Of course, changing your lifestyle can be helpful for some and it's never a bad idea to look at your daily routines and how you can incorporate self care practices to help. But ultimately, if someone is in pain, suffering with anxiety and sleep deprivation and horrible periods, why the heck shouldn't they want some relief?

Since when have women ever had an "easy life"?- the idea of that is just laughable from a health perspective when you think of all the things women go through regarding childbirth, BCP, periods, menopause, smear tests, mammograms etc and thats not even starting on health inequalities!

I'm sorry you had such an awful time btw x

I think the lack of information and research is a big problem.

From the media, you would think that every woman hitting 39 is demanding HRT for peri menopause, regardless of symptoms.

That clearly isn’t true, but if you try to seek out information from your GP it’s a lottery, and reputable sources like NHS Direct are too vague to be helpful.

There seems to be a difference between advice you would get on the NHS and privately, but which is correct?

Davina MCall gets flack for being a celebrity menopause campaigner, but where do you go for the non celebrity advice?

I think it’s actually quite a balanced article and I’m relieved to see it’s written by women.

I am one of the women who really doesn’t get on with HRT. I’ve been a patient of Newson clinic, I’ve been under the NHS for it. I wanted to give it a go. I’m 43 and have multiple autoimmune issues including lupus and Addisons which meant I went into early menopause aged 37. I was prescribed Oestrogel, utrogestan and the mini pill. Gradually I just had issue after issue, huge clots, persistent bleeding, mood changes etc etc. Newson just kept increasing the oestrogel which made things worse and ignoring my concerns. NHS gynaecologist reduced my dose back down but this caused other issues. In the end after years of this I just got so fed up with it all I’ve just completely stopped it. There is definitely a narrative of pushing all women to take it and a really thing about the long term dangers of not taking it - but for many women like me with complex issues it just makes things worse in so many ways.

I also think the most high profile menopause specialists - ie Louise Newson, Newson clinic etc etc are businesses at their core. If they were genuinely seeking to change women’s health they wouldn’t link to so many articles behind pay walls / subscriptions etc which if you follow them on instagram you’ll see this all the time. I wanted to read the article you’ve linked to and interestingly you don’t have to subscribe to anything to do this in comparison. And yes before someone leaps on me I do realise there are free factsheets on the balance website. But not all the information is free or easy to access.

I spent £600 with the menopause clinic. I would have kept spending £200 ish every few months if I hadn’t just stepped back and said it really wasn’t working for me.

I thought it was quite a balanced article and is based on reports in the Lancet. Nobody seems to be saying that nobody should take HRT.

@flippertyjibbets read ‘kind’ as not also bully others

Me too.

I’m 44. Around 4 years ago I felt awful. Horrendous brain fog, I felt ill all the had joint pain, I was depressed, periods had stated to get irregular.

Eveyone said peri menopause. Even a GP encouraged me to try HRT.

I didn’t, because do you know what else I was just over 3 years ago? A morbidly obese woman who lived off shit food and sugar. I knew I felt shit because of my size and what I ate. Everyone else I know seemed to want to put it down to perimenopause .

Totally changed my life and diet and after 6/8 months all those symptoms had gone. periods went back to clockwork and Felt wonderful. Three years on, 11 stone down and not a symptom.

Ive got friends in the same boat, on HRT, trying to find the right dose but still like I was before and still feeling shit.

It's right up there with natural birth is great and natural remedies.

This kind of thing is always put on women; basically modern medicine is brilliant and we should use it, imo.

@bombastix which is all great if you can have a natural birth. But what if you can’t?

Exactly. It's ridiculous. Having a baby or the menopause doesn't mean you need special Mother Earth points.

Have the baby. Have a decent menopause with some help from modern medicine. Embrace it: it's one of the good things about living now

@bombastix exactly! Women are still dying in childbirth all over the world due to poor healthcare. It’s nuts!

Go on. Who did she bully?

Stop making vague unsubstantiated statements. Say what you mean.

It is on record she was failed by her institution & forced to leave her position.

I have yet to hear anyone say how she bullied or mistreated them, and out of 3000 + employees, that's interesting in itself.

It can be simultaneously true that GPs are still unacceptably dismissing women struggling with menopausal symptoms and that there is a relatively new strand of messaging in the popular discourse that anything to do with women’s health over 40 is menopause-related.

I am very concerned that I won’t be able to access what I need if and when I need it. I don’t need to be convinced of the misogyny that minimises female health problems and I don’t think doctors are doling out HRT on request. But I also feel the subject is in my face at every turn. Not from GPs, no, but certainly in the wider conversation. Ageing and the menopause appear to have become one and the same thing. It has women worrying about it years before anything happens.

Yes, we need balance. We’re a very long way from that at present.

@EarringsandLipstick you are just screaming all that you have read in the media and in the ex VC’s statement. As I said before, it was a nightmare to work at the institution while this was going on. I have colleagues that worked with her. I don’t need to be screamed at by you because I won’t give another version of events that doesn’t fit with yours.

15 % is one in seven. That doesn't seem like a particularly low percentage to me. In comparison 1 in 8 adults are on statins (statins are the second most prescribed group of drugs in the UK).

What matters is how many women have debilitating symptoms and how many of those want to be on HRT. And are women being listened to and checked fully before being prescribed drugs. Women being given HRT when their symptoms are actually a sign of disease would be as much of a problem as women being given antidepressants when what they need is HRT.

Don't you think it's really encouraging that women are thinking about it and actively discussing it though?

It was a taboo subject for so long, there was so little factual information available - and GPs knew even less than they do now- it was hard to talk about and vaguely shameful.

There has been a huge shift here and there is more to be worked out clearly but it's such a positive change. Why wouldn't you be thinking ahead to be ready for peri menopause and the changes that are coming - if you choose to?
Surely that's better than suddenly finding at 48 that you can't seem to do your job any more and feel like you're going insane and not sleeping and your GP isn't being helpful etc?

And yes of course, not everyone has severe symptoms but there are still changes happening that at least might cause you to consider making minor life style changes.

this is Brighton@EarringsandLipstick

bullying probably means having an opinion that gender is a social construct and sex is immutable
(and not being afraid to say it in a University full of angry TRAs who
won't have read a sentence
of Kathleen's brilliant
book)

@flippertyjibbets you have revealed yourself there haven’t you.

The truth is actually that she’s just not a very nice woman.

The truth is actually that she’s just not a very nice woman.

Who cares if she’s nice? What has that got to do with anything?

The comment that Flippety has inadvertently revealed something presumably untoward / unmentionable is itself rather suggestive!

"not a very nice woman"
How so? Want to elaborate?
Guessing not.
Cheap, lazy barbs at a
woman who has already had an apology from the Uni who acknowledges that she was intimidated.
I wouldn't be very bloody nice or
kind if I'd been treated as appallingly as she was.