It’s no exaggeration to say that the transition through menopause can be life-altering, and not for the better. Sure, women can happily wave goodbye to their periods, but they’re often met with a host of new quality-of-life and health concerns.
Each year in the United States, 1.3 million women begin their journeys through menopause, leaving them to deal with changes both big and small — many of which can be offset with hormone therapy.
At Bethel Family Medicine, team leaders Dr. Douglas R. Grogan and Dr. Jennifer Hall DiFalco specialize in women’s health issues, which means we have a good deal of experience with menopause. Based on this experience, we’ve found that hormone therapies are often the best way to address some of the unwelcome side effects that come with menopause.
At the heart of menopause is the sudden drop in reproductive hormones — namely estrogen and progesterone — that signal the end of your reproductive years. Absent these hormones, you no longer ovulate.
The problem lies in the fact that the effects of this hormonal deficit extend well past ovulation and include many different areas of your health that range from your bone health to your cardiovascular health.
The average age that women become postmenopausal is 51, and this number is important in our discussion. Given that humans are living much longer than they once did, this means that women can spend up to 40% of their lives in postmenopause, which can create some real challenges in their health and wellness.
Through hormone therapy, our goal is to replenish these hormones so that they can continue to support your health.
The list of potential side effects from menopause is a long one, and we aren’t going to get into all of them here. Instead, we’re going to focus on the most common symptoms and how hormone therapy can help.
Topping the list of side effects are vasomotor symptoms — hot flashes and night sweats — which occur in about 75% of women.
Another unwelcome side effect of menopause is vaginal dryness due to lack of estrogen, which affects more than half of postmenopausal women.
After a woman passes through menopause, she can lose about 20% of her bone density. This bone loss can lead to osteoporosis and bone fractures.
Estrogen has a protective effect on your cardiovascular health by keeping your blood vessels more elastic and less prone to atherosclerosis — blockages in your blood vessels that set the stage for serious heart disease.
The loss of estrogen can also lead to mood changes — more anxiety and depression — and what many women refer to as brain fog.
What each of these side effects has in common is twofold: 1) They pose risks to your overall health and wellness; and 2) Each can be treated through hormone therapy.
Many different options are available when it comes to hormone therapy, such as:
When choosing one that's right for you, we can sit down and review your symptoms, your lifestyle, and your goals. Together, we can come up with a plan that will ease your journey after menopause.
To learn more about hormone therapy or to sit down with one of our team members to discuss your options, we invite you to schedule an appointment at our office in Brockton, Massachusetts, today.
