Menopause Symptoms Affecting Your Life? Why Getting Treatment Matters
Menopause symptoms can last for years and, for some women, can significantly affect daily life and quality of life. Reproductive psychiatrist Dr. Karen Horst explains why seeking treatment can be important when symptoms interfere with sleep, activities, or overall well-being.
Transcript:
Jamie Forward:
Dr. Karen Horst: I would say the big compelling reason to get treatment is that these symptoms can last for a long time. They can last for over 10 years. And so, if it were like a two-to-four-year proposition, you might argue “Tough it out. It’s going to be over.” But a lot of women, that’s not the case. And I’ve seen women whose lives were completely interrupted by menopause. This is a minority, but they’re the ones who end up seeing me. And they are women for whom they lost their job.
Their body hurts so much. They don’t exercise. They’ve gained a lot of weight. Their mobility is decreased. They don’t socialize because they don’t feel like socializing. They have new onset of vestibular migraines that totally disrupts their function. So, part of the reason to get treatment is the symptoms can be quite severe. Some women do have uneventful menopause transitions and that’s wonderful for them, but the majority of women will have bothersome symptoms. And if it’s impacting your quality of life, I think there’s an argument for seeking treatment options.
The other thing that is bothersome to me as a doctor is that medical science really did freeze and new doctors were just not trained –honestly, they were never trained in treating midlife women.
There’s a long dark history of medical studies prioritizing male illnesses over female-only illnesses and of treatments being studied only on men and then being given to women. But doctors really, unless they have gotten, sought out extra treatment outside of their usual medical school and residency curriculum, they have not been trained in how to meet their patients’ needs., sadly. And that has left a lot of women turning to the media, turning to social media specifically, and turning to people who are trying to sell them things, whether it’s hormone therapy that’s not FDA-approved, or it’s supplements.
