Menopause: your questions answered
Written in association with:
Obstetrician - gynaecologist
Published: 20/02/2023
Edited by: Aoife Maguire
What is menopause?
Menopause is the time in a woman’s life when she has run out of all her eggs. This results in a reduction of hormones, which therefore produces a whole panorama of symptoms.
Who is affected by menopause?
Only women can go through a menopause because only women have eggs. We think traditionally that menopause only happens to women after the age of 45 or 50 but the symptoms of menopause can begin much earlier than that.
The effects of menopause are not only placed on the women but on her family and friends. They not only impact her health but they impact her life as a whole; through her family life, her work life and her personal life.
Although menopause only happens to an individual, its effects are very wide ranging.
What are the most common physical symptoms of menopause?
Traditionally, we think about splitting menopause into various subsections so we think about the common symptoms being of hot flushes, night sweats, mode change, anger, irritability, headaches, migraines, headaches.
Other body symptoms are palpitations and there are specific problems such as vaginal dryness, problems with intercourse, pain with intercourse and problems with the bladder. Increasingly doctors are very aware of the association with the drop in sex drive with the libidio.
Additionally, there are some more difficult to measure symptoms, such as lack of interest in life, referred to as anhedonia. There is a lack of the joy of things in life, where joy and happiness might have previously been found, there is a slowing down and numbing down to the enjoyment of life as a result of menopause.
Lack of concentration and focus are important features that we’ve seen in lots of menopause patients and thankfully we can help with a lot of that.
How can menopause affect one’s psychological wellbeing?
Psychological effects of menopause are really important. It is important to the individual, to the family unit and to the woman at work.
Psychological issues often seen by doctors are conentration problems. Patients tell doctors things such as ‘I can’t concentrate on the numerous tasks that I have to undertake at work,’ I've got brain fog, stuff gets a bit foggy’ and ‘I just can’t quite focus on the on the tasks that I had.’
It is common to see women who were tolerant of their partners, of issues at home, of their kids and that tolerance goes quickly. There is a lot of irritability and quick changes. They transition from happy to, sad, angry to really angry, then not angry and the cycle continues.
Furthermore, they feel that they cannot focus and concentrate on specific tasks. This causes a lot of problems at work and a a lot of women say ‘I’m not going to go for a promotion, I’m going to do something different in my work because I feel I just can’t do it ‘. This is not true, of course they can do it but it’s that they just feel that they can’t.
Can menopause be treated?
Menopause is a woman running out of egg supply and unfortunately there isn’t a way of reversing that change; doctors cannot make new eggs. All the eggs a woman will ever have she was created with and that egg supply dwindles through her life until she hasn’t got any more eggs. That’s the menopause and that’s not fixable, you can’t fix that.
However, the symtpoms of menopause can be helped by replacing the hormones. Menopause happens because the eggs run out and in doing so, the hormones that are released are no longer released but doctors can replace the hormones. As a result, the symptoms of menopause can be overcome but replacing the hormones overcomes most of the menopause symptoms.
Which specialists treat menopause?
Menopause can be treated by therapists and doctors, GPs, general gynecologists and reproductive medicine doctors.
It is essential for those who treat menopause to understand the important physiology of hormones (how the body works with hormones). As well as understanding the physiology of medicine, the ability is to listen to patients about how their symptoms are affecting their live and how their specific symptoms are changing their lives is an essential trait as a reproudctive doctor.
Not every woman will have the same symptoms and what is important is teasing out which symptoms are due to the menopause and trying to figure out a way of dealing with those problems.
Hormones are one option but there is a whole spectrum of medications that can be used: both hormonal and non- hormonal.
When it comes to treating menoupause, it is essential to have a doctor who can tailor the specific therapeutic options to that specific patient.