Know the Signs: Early Pelvic & Sexual Health Changes in Menopause

Transcript:

Jamie Forward: What are the early pelvic or sexual health changes that women might notice in perimenopause or menopause that are often misunderstood or brushed off?

Jessica Bell:  It’s that low hormone effect. So, there can be a progression of the estrogen decline, and so, and sometimes people don’t notice it until it has become highly symptomatic, until they are finally speaking truth to the fact that they’re now experiencing pain with intimacy, pain with intercourse, or getting recurrent urinary tract infections.

And so, I would say the first sign and symptom that can come up for some people is described as kind of like, “It burns a little bit when I urinate. It doesn’t quite feel like a UTI situation,” and that is that low hormone effect starting at the urethra itself. People might start to notice other symptoms as well.

Some people will start to notice a new, light incontinence, and that can be the low hormone effect at the tissue level, kind of reduces the elasticity in some ways, and so, that makes it more difficult for us to kind of like, squeeze things off or recruit those pelvic floor muscles to prevent the incontinence from occurring. There are other risk factors for that, of course, as well, but commonly, there’s a whole constellation of symptoms that we call genitourinary syndrome.

So, that can be urinary urgency, urinary frequency, a light incontinence, an itchy, burning, stinging sensation with urination, a dryness, decreased lubrication, pain with intimacy or intercourse, and then also, sometimes recurrent vaginal infections or urinary tract infections.