The domino effect
I’ve never heard of the term ‘Domino Effect’ being applied to menopause, although, if one thinks about it, it makes perfect sense. For example, hot flashes beget sleep disruptions beget mood swings, and so on and and so on.
But do they?
In a study published in Menopause Journal ahead-of-print, 55 women were asked to keep daily records of their symptoms for up to five years or until they fully entered menopause. whichever came first. The researchers then evaluated whether or not changes in hot flashes or night sweats would predict a change in sleep the very same day, and if these changes then predicted changes in moods the next day. They also factored in whether or not women were initially depressed to insure that any results they found would not be unduly influenced.
They found that daily hot flashes or night sweats accurately predicted same day sleep problems and disruptions, which in turn, worsened moods the next day. However, the researchers were unable to connect hot flashes and night sweats directly to shifts in mood without this interim step except for in women who were already mildly depressed.
Are you confused yet?
What this really shows is that while night flashes and hot sweats may affect overall mood swings during menopause, the reason is unlikely to be attributed directly to sleep disruption but rather to some other mechanism. In the long run, this may allow lead to better interventions that individually address these factors so that the sum of the parts becomes a more positive sense of well-being regardless of any physical disruptions.
Every action has a chain reaction. Hopefully, this finding will lead to something positive for us all.
Read MoreBurn Baby Burn….reposted
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_sY2rjxq6M]
Last year, I wrote a post about burning mouth syndrome. I am reposting it today because a reader commented that there is an informational questionnaire that many of you may be interested in. Here’s the link. By sharing your experiences, perhaps the sponsors can find a common thread among women who suffer from burning mouth syndrome and an effective treatment.
In my last post, I mentioned that menopause has been linked to altered sensitivity in the roof of the mouth and a decreased ability to detect sweet taste. Interestingly, I heard from a friend that she recently started experiencing a burning sensation in her mouth and that her doctors have been attributing it to menopause. Say what?!
Seems that the Queen Bee of Menopause, the Sister of Love and Destruction, the Lady of Light and Dark, estrogen herself, is wreaking havoc on more than the tastebuds.
I was intrigued so I did a search. I found over 500 articles in the National Library of Medicine Database, PubMed, and also located this article in the journal American Family Physician.
Although burning mouth syndrome primarily appears to primarily affect women after menopause, some 10% to 40% of women in menopause can suffer from its effects. These may may include burning in the tongue or oral mucus membranes, dry mouth and taste alterations.
The causes of burning mouth syndrome range from depression and anxiety to underlying illness, high glucose levels and of course, hormones. Researchers have also identified alterations in the cranial sacral nerves that serve taste and pain sensations as possible culprits.
Currently, unproven treatments include benzodiazapines, antidepressants, anticonvulsants and capsaicin. However, I’m wondering whether or not craniosacral therapy might offer an alternative to women who don’t want to go the drug route. Mind you, there are lots of naysayers out there who claim that CST is quakery but having used it successfully for pain, I am a huge fan.
A fellow blogger also directed me to this extensive site on burning mouth syndrome. I can’t vouch for its content but it is definitely worth checking out for backgrounding purposes. Do you suffer from Burning Mouth Syndrome? What are you doing to treat your symptoms? Inquiring minds want to know!
Read MoreLadies of the world, flashers, sweat-ers, mood swingers…it’s World Menopause Day!
Lend me your ears….you have your own DAY! In the U.S. we give you a month. But the world gives you a day! And it’s TODAY! I wrote this rant last year and it’s still so appropriate that I thought I’d repost it.
I wish I could laugh about it. Because as my Twitter friend @lilpecan wrote me yesterday:
“Who doesn’t enjoy a little menopause humour? (No, really? Who doesn’t? Because I’ll kill them.)” (Gotta love that, right?!)
In any case, my thoughts about World Menopause Day. Kill it!
Last month was National Menopause Month in the U.S. Now, the ‘world of women in menopause’ actually has a day. I swear if it weren’t abundantly clear that the initiative was likely being driven by national medicine societies and pharmaceutical companies, I’d suspect that Hallmark and PaperHouse had conspired to sell more cards.
Here’s the challenge issued by the International Menopause Society (IMS):
“The World Menopause Day challenge therefore calls on every woman age 45 and older to return to her physician and speak about her individual health history, her risks for diseases, the benefits and risks of available treatments for disease prevention, and steps she can take now to take charge of her health.”
President Hermann Schneider of the IMS also says:
“Due to the recent publications on the risks of long-term use of hormone therapy, many women suffering from menopausal complaints have either dropped out of therapy or haven’t started therapy at all.”
Okay. I truly believe that it’s a great idea to take charge of one’s health and examine some of the natural changes that occur, not only with menopause, but also with aging. But by lumping them all together in a single pot, well, I cry “foul.”
Did you know that many diseases that the medical community has long associated with menopause are, in fact, due to the aging process? You may recall that I recently wrote about a new study published in the Journal of Hypertension clearly demonstrates that differences in heart disease risk between pre- and post-menopausal women with similar risk profiles existed only when age, NOT ESTROGEN LEVELS, were accounted for. This may be why hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has not been proven to prevent heart disease.
So, until they sort some of these bits out, do we really want to fault women for refusing hormone replacement? Moreover, how many women wish to make a pact with the devil to further the medicalization of menopause? Not I!
Here’s what I propose:
- To the IMS and other medical societies – stop medicalizing what is a natural transition in our mid-lives. Hey, here’s a nifty idea: why not review your data, read alternative medicine peer-reviewed journals and educate yourselves about effective alternative therapies for your patients who have been scared off by the negative findings surrounding HRT and antidepressants and other pharmaceuticals? What’s more, what if you made a greater effort to embrace multidisciplinary collaboration and invite educated and credentialed alternative practitioners into your fold, practitioners who might be able to offer you and your patients important solutions when Western ways fail or are simply, impractical?
- To the World Health Organization – please stop telling us to celebrate the menopause. Trust me – when women are flashing in the middle of a meeting, sweat pouring down their faces as their colleagues look on, or are sleeping on soaking wet sheets because of night sweats, well, they don’t really feel like having a cocktail and a “WOOT,” ain’t life grand”-sort of celebration. Maybe, instead, think about devoting some of that hard research cash toward studies that focus first on women and last on profit.
- To leading women’s health expert and Council Member of the British Menopause Society, Mr. Nick Panay, a Hot Flush Diary is the last thing I want to keep on my nightstand. In fact, the idea of taking notes on all of my hot flashes and night sweats and when/why/how they occur and how they make feel gets me pretty hot under the collar. Tell you what: the next time you have to pee for the zillionth time in the middle of the night, turn on the light and write in your BPH journal how you feel. I would guess that that’s not going to happen, right?
Want to “make this hot woman cool?” Stop making me feel as though menopause is a disease and not a natural transition that all women go through. Stop telling me that I should embrace this part of my life without fighting it every step of the way. And please, stop treating my body as if it’s disconnected from my mind.
Read MoreWednesday Bubble: blame it on…
I was struck by the following story that appeared two weeks ago on the BBC:
“Woman’s Death Blamed on Menopause.”
“A woman who refused to take hormone replacement therapy died while suffering a menopausal episode, an inquest had heard. Margaret Drew…was killed when she walked out of her family home on to a nearby railway line and was hit by a train…There is no trigger to this at all, except hormones making her do things that she normally wouldn’t do, Dr. Carlyon [Cornwall Coroner) concluded…”
Menopause. The silent killer. Oh really? Drew’s husband claims that his wife was “delightful, lovely and friendly” 99% of the time; the other 1% she’d become “totally irrational.” Yet, she refused to try HRT, he says. On the day of her suicide, he said that his wife was “clearly angry about something.”
Something.
Obviously, the conclusion is that that the “something” is hormones. This reminds me of vintage advertising copy that conveys the simple message that a pill a day can cure all that ails, wipe away the tears, mood swings and instability so that women can “transition without tears” (or better yet, without killing themselves).
Notably, a search in the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed database turned up only one recent study specifically dealing with suicide ideation across reproductive stages. In it, researchers compared data in 8,794 women, and found an increased risk of thinking about suicide among women during perimenopause, not before or after entering menopause. These findings remained after controlling for risk factors such as anxiety and mood disorders. HOWEVER, the researchers noted that the study design did not allow them to form any definitive conclusions about the specific reasons for thinking about suicide.
Another search yielded information that the risk for a major depression increases during perimenopause, primarily as the direct result of vasomotor symptoms. The same does not hold true for women before menopause begins or once they enter menopause. Note that while major depression is a risk factor for suicide, not everyone who is depressed will actually kill themselves.
So, are hormonal fluctuations the sole cause of such deep unhappiness that women want to kill themselves?
Interestingly, just a week after the menopause/train suicide story hit the interwebz, a rather controversial set of data also emerged: since 1972, women’s overall level of happiness has dropped. These findings held true regardless of child status, marital status and age. Researcher Marcus Buckingham, writing in the Huffington Post, said that women are not more unhappy than men because of gender stereotyping and related attitudes, due to working longer hours or because of the inequality of housework/responsibilities at home, but rather, the hormonal fluctuations of menopause may be to blame. What’s more, he leaves us hanging so we’ll tune in for part two of the piece to learn the true cause of our declining happiness or better yet, read his book (which evidently guides women through the process of finding the true role that they were meant to play in life).
Importantly, reactions to this study (and various pundits’ assessment of it) have been mixed. One of the most poignant comments I’ve read asks the question “how is happiness measured? What does it mean?”
I have no idea what caused Mrs. Drew to walk into a train two weeks ago and kill herself. Perhaps she was depressed. Clearly she was suicidal.
I have no idea why research shows that women are less happier than they were three decades ago.
However, is menopause the cause? Don’t these conclusions only serve to perpetuate societal myths that menopause is a disease that requires treatment? That as women, our attitudes, belief systems and actions are hormonally-based and driven? That we are hysterical beings who need guidance on how to find our way and fulfill our dreams, realize our paths, but only if we calm down?
Feeling angry? Blame it on menopause. Unhappy? Blame it on menopause. Not realizing your dreams? Blame it on menopause. Overworked, overstressed, undervalued? Blame it on menopause.
Blame it on menopause.
I don’t know about you but I’m tired, tired of hearing that menopause is not the symptom but the disease.
There’s no time like the present to burst this bubble.
Transition without tears
I am constantly struck by how menopause was positioned back in the day. One pill and voila; life returns!
‘Transition without tears.’ In only minutes…. Says it all, right?!
Read MoreBuyer beware: on snake oil, false promises, male menopause and Michael Jackson
Snake oil. Can’t live with it.
Patented snake oil remedies have been around since the early 1700’s, lending credence to the hypothesis that preying on an individual’s healthcare needs is a well-honed art. For months now, I’ve been exposing various menopausal remedies that offer relief for anything and everything that ails. I’ve found supplements, chewing gum and magnets, audio tapes, creams, rubs and lotions… the whole nine yards. Mind you, some do contain ingredients that, on their own and in standardized formulations, may alleviate or prevent symptoms from worsening or peaking. However, I have long fought against the “one size fits all” proposition, instead arguing that the best therapeutic approach is individualized, evidenced-based, methodical, fluid and supervised by a licensed healthcare professional.
The menopause market is huge, with latest industry projections topping, if not exceeding $4 to $8 billion, depending on who you speak to. And this number is expected to grow as the population ages. So, it’s not surprising that there are increasing numbers of players who want a piece of the action. And, that the action is not just geared towards women, but to men as well.
Wait! Women are the only one’s who go through menopause, right?!
Readers of this blog know what I think about male menopause and I continue to question the terminology as well as its comparison to what women experience during the transition. Yet, regardless of my beliefs, I object to predators, period.
So, it troubled me when I ran across the following headline:
“Michael Jackson could have been going through ‘male menopause’ says SimplyAgeless411.”
Hmmmm. The rat is back. And he’s smelling even worse.
According to the two anti-aging consultants who are quoted in the press release, Michael Jackson, a “dark, troubled soul,” could have been suffering from male menopause for years, that the anxiety, depression, insomnia and fatigue that prompted his reliance on prescription medicines might have been easily treated had he gotten to the right doctor. The hook here is that if you “realize after taking a long hard look at the man in the mirror that male menopause might be sneaking up on you,” that you should talk to your doctor about hormone therapy. The close? That low hormone levels can be easily addressed through a regimen of tablets, and gels applied to the skin. Results they claim, are “dramatic and immediate.” Of note, a frequent contributor to this site’s Ezine is a Board-certified hormone specialist.
So, ladies and gents, gather round, the menopausal marketing circus is in town. And it appears that it’s here to stay. If the spotlight in the ring is on “dramatic,” “immediate,” “cure” or “guarantee,” money-back or not, you might want to avoid the big tent at all costs.
p.s. If you are looking for information about how to go about selecting an alternative therapy for menopause, Flashfree is the place. Throughout this blog and its various topics, I’ve explored many alternative therapies and the most current evidence that I can find supporting or disputing their use throughout the menopause; I encourage you to peruse the archives. You might also want to revisit ‘Navigating the Maze, Parts I and II,’ my interview with NYC-based acupuncturist and Chinese medicine specialist Elaine Stern, about what to look for. I also recommend that you check out the links on the Blogroll, as they will take you to reputable sources of information.
Special thanks to Andrew Scherer and Scherer Cybrarian LLC for assistance with some of the research for this post.
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