Women's Rights & Issues
Related: About this forum"We Have Been Misled About Menopause"
this is a NYT article from Yahoo news so there's no paywall.
Long article but interesting perspective.
Menopausal hormone therapy was once the most commonly prescribed treatment in the United States. In the late 1990s, some 15 million women a year were receiving a prescription for it. But in 2002, a single study, its design imperfect, found links between hormone therapy and elevated health risks for women of all ages. Panic set in; in one year, the number of prescriptions plummeted. Hormone therapy carries risks, to be sure, as do many medications that people take to relieve serious discomfort, but dozens of studies since 2002 have provided reassurance that for women under 60 whose hot flashes are troubling them, the benefits of taking hormones outweigh the risks. The treatments reputation, however, has never fully recovered, and the consequences have been wide-reaching. It is painful to contemplate the sheer number of indignities unnecessarily endured over the past 20 years: the embarrassing flights to the bathroom, the loss of precious sleep, the promotions that seemed no longer in reach, the changing of all those drenched sheets in the early morning, the depression that fell like a dark curtain over so many womens days.
About 85 percent of women experience menopausal symptoms.
...
Too many doctors are not equipped to parse these intricate pros and cons, even if they wanted to. Medical schools, in response to the W.H.I., were quick to abandon menopausal education. There was no treatment considered safe and effective, so they decided there was nothing to teach, says Minkin, the Yale OB-GYN. About half of all practicing gynecologists are under 50, which means that they started their residencies after the publication of the W.H.I. trial and might never have received meaningful education about menopause.
article continues here:
https://news.yahoo.com/misled-menopause-154103700.html
emulatorloo
(44,120 posts)ShepKat
(383 posts)my mother died of estrogen fed breast cancer in January of 1984 after menopause. She took the hormone therapy. Be careful.
NJCher
(35,663 posts)I missed this posting (thanks, IcyPeas, and especially for the no paywall option). I was alerted to it by an interview with the author, Susan Dominus, this morning on WNYC, our local NPR affiliate. I was only half paying attention because of phone calls and other disruptions, so I will go back and listen again, plus read the article.
I want to post the interview tomorrow when they turn it into a segment anyone can listen to because there were so many callers who had valuable information. In the meantime, if anyone wants to check the page for where the interview will appear, it is:
https://www.wnyc.org/story/all-of-it-2023-02-07
For example, one woman called in and talked about two items that interested me:
1) hot flashes can be treated with Chinese herbs
2) menopause can be the cause of dizziness!!
I didn't know about the second one. As for the first one, not sure how to find a Chinese herbalist, but I'm certainly going to check.
I know there are some around here because I've heard people talk about successful treatments through them. In addition, I had a friend who worked for the Chinese in a technology area and he learned about how to order "real Chinese" from a Chinese restaurant--AND how to use Chinese herbs for a hangover and other problems. He had success with these various herbal treatments, and believe me, he was not the "herb treatment" type.
In addition, on the show the author listed other sources for help, which I will check out and add to the post when I come back tomorrow, after the station has posted the show. Apparently there is a new non-hormonal treatment coming out and it has the medical people excited about its potential.
We should cross post this in the Health forum, too.
IcyPeas
(21,866 posts)just be careful with the Chinese herbs.... if you are taking any other medication. do your research.
NJCher
(35,663 posts)The audio for the program is up:
https://www.wnyc.org/story/all-of-it-2023-02-07/
IcyPeas, thanks. It's a good point. I will talk to my doctor before I go to the Chinese herbalists.