[What is Menopause?]

[Symptoms]

[Healthy Menopause]

[Treatment]

[Support]

[Resources]

 

Treatment

 

What can you do to promote your health when you reach menopause?

Here are some things you can do on your own:

  • Eat a healthy diet

  • Reduce your stress

  • Stop smoking

  • Maintain a healthy weight

  • Exercise (within your ability)

Talk to your doctor or nurse about:

  • Preventive treatment

  • Screening for risk factors

  • Bone density testing

  • Monitoring your heart health

Some women find alternative therapies helpful including:

  • Meditation

  • Acupuncture

  • Phytoestrogens (found in some foods; act like estrogen)

  • Soy products

  • Herbal products to help with symptoms like hot flashes and depression

Even though many herbal products are used by women in menopause, many have not been tested.

As a woman with a disability, you need to think about whether herbal products may interact with your medicines. Talk to your doctor or nurse about any herbal product you are using.        

 

What about hormone replacement therapy?

  • Hormone therapy (HT), formerly called hormone replacement therapy (HRT), is a prescription medication that works very well to control hot flashes. It can also be helpful with sleep problems and heavy bleeding that women may have with perimenopause. In some cases, HT may improve sexual desire. HT may be effective in protecting women from osteoporosis. Despite these possible benefits of HT, new risks have recently been identified suggesting that the risks outweigh the benefits of HT. For more information about osteoporosis, click on Osteoporosis.
  • Recent studies have shown that HT, once thought to protect women against heart disease and to reduce memory loss, may not do so. An increase in risk of breast cancer among women who use HT has also been reported.
  • Each woman's choice to use HT must depend on her own symptoms and her own risk factors. Women who have undergone surgical removal of the ovaries may have more severe menopause symptoms than women who go through menopause naturally. In addition, bone loss and risk for osteoporosis are greater since they have a sudden loss of estrogen.
     
  • Women who elect to use HT despite these risks should use the smallest doses of HT that are effective in relieving menopausal symptoms.
  • Low-dose birth control pills, which are effective in managing excessive bleeding in midlife, have higher doses of hormone than HT developed for menopausal women. So in order to give women the least amount of hormone possible, they need to be transitioned from the low-dose birth control pills to HT. Some clinicians use age 51, the mean age for menopause among Americans, as the age to make this transition. Others base this decision on levels of the hormone, FSH (follicle stimulating hormone).
  • Women who had their uterus removed can take estrogen-only products. But women who do have their uterus and choose to take HT need to take combination estrogen-progesterone products, to guard against an increased risk of endometrial cancer. Studies have shown that estrogen alone products increases the risk of uterine cancer.
  • Recently, studies have shown that the use of hormones with no monthly break, for three months straight, is not harmful, and may be beneficial for women for whom menstrual periods are a problem-- such as women with excessive menstrual bleeding. This may be an option for women with mobility limitations, for whom menstrual hygiene may be difficult.

 

Contraindications                                                              pregnant woman in chair                           no smoking symbol

HT should not be used by women who are pregnant, who have undiagnosed uterine bleeding, or who smoke. It should be used with extreme caution among women who have had breast cancer, ovarian cancer or endometrial cancer; deep vein thrombosis; pulmonary embolism; a clotting disorder; or liver disease.

Women with disabilities need to discuss hormone therapy with a health care provider who is knowledgeable about their disability and the potential risks/benefits of HT.

                                        

 
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12/02/2003 06:09 PM