Navigating Menopause

Every woman will go through menopause in her life – but not all women talk openly about the process.

Menopause is officially defined as 12 months after a woman has her last menstrual period. This means the body has stopped releasing eggs from the ovaries and can no longer become pregnant. When ovaries stop producing eggs, they stop producing hormones as well – mostly estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone.

The transition to menopause (perimenopause) and menopause itself come with symptoms that can be isolating, disruptive, and frustrating. Many women deal with the symptoms silently and alone.

As an OB/GYN provider at Clinton Crossings in Brighton, Maureen Slattery, MD, helps to treat many patients in different stages of menopause. She is also one of approximately 3,000 Menopause Society-certified practitioners in the United States. She describes how to navigate the changes of menopause, its effects on women, and how different treatments can bring relief.

How does menopause affect women?

Menopause is disruptive to women’s lives. Symptoms of menopause can appear without warning at different times of day or night and make life challenging, frustrating, and hard. Some of these symptoms include:

• Hot flashes
• Disrupted sleep
• Foggy brain (losing train of thought)
• Discomfort/pain with sex
• Lower libido
• Hair thinning
• Mood instability
• Skin changes
• Vaginal dryness
• Weight gain in abdomen

When one or more of these symptoms arise, many women will go through periods of normalcy where everything feels okay and they feel like themselves, followed by periods where they don’t feel like themselves at all.

“All of these can affect our work, our families, our interpersonal relationships, and how we feel about ourselves,” Dr. Slattery said.

Treating menopause symptoms

There are many ways to find relief from menopausal symptoms, including lifestyle changes, hormonal and non-hormonal treatments, and medications. All of these can help improve quality of life for women in various ways.

Lifestyle changes might include dressing in layers, avoiding food or drink that triggers hot flashes such as alcohol, spicy foods, or warm beverages, or bringing a cooling fan to work. Studies show lifting weights can help to maintain muscle mass and strength that is otherwise lost during menopause.

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) replaces the hormones a woman’s ovaries used to make with artificial hormones that help bring her body back to a relatively normal state. It can offer relief to many patients and make menopause more manageable.

Medications and non-hormonal therapies are also helpful in treating symptoms of menopause. Anti-depressant medications, gabapentin, and other prescription medication can help with hot flashes.

Dryness and pain related to sex can be treated using vaginal estrogen creams and lubricants.

“People don’t have to suffer,” Dr. Slattery said. “There are a wide variety of options that are out there. Personalizing those options to your needs, to your history, how long it’s been since you made the transition – all of those things come into play. We can do that uniquely for each person.”