Advice for Getting the Menopause Care You Deserve

Transcript:

Jamie Forward: Dr. Piasta, what sort of questions should people be asking so that they can make the most of the appointment time? I love your idea of sending them a message first to sort of give them the heads up.

Dr. Jackie Piasta: So, I probably would say something to the effect of, “Given what you know about my medical history, what options am I the best candidate for? Or what symptoms am I having do you think we can attribute to menopause, and which ones maybe are –” like Dr. Ali said before for frozen shoulder, we can give this and see if it gets better and we know that biologically it’s plausible, but we don’t have outcome studies to say, “Definitely this is what we can expect from this therapy.”

So, I think really, it’s just – another little pro tip is to go online and put in the search engine the menopause rating scale. That’s the most validated screener that we have. And to print it out or get it on your phone in a digital format and map your symptoms with that. And that will rank them on a scale of mild to, really, just horrible. And you can show that, use that as a tool with your clinician to say, “This is what’s really interrupting or affecting my quality of life.” Almost 70 percent of women have symptoms that severely affect their quality of life. And so, that is a communication tool for your clinician and to let them know exactly what areas need to be prioritized.

Because again, I might think that hot flashes are the most distressing thing for that patient, but that patient might come to me and say, “No, it’s actually joint pain. Or it’s brain fog. Or it’s low libido that are the most distressing.” So, I would say, use the menopause rating scale as a communication tool for your appointment.

Jamie Forward: Yeah. Great. So, that’s really good advice. I had not heard of that, so thank you for sharing that.

Dr. Jackie Piasta: Yeah.

Jamie Forward: So, just to allay any fears we have, some people may have a long relationship with their doctor, right? They may have had delivered their babies, they have these long relationships. So, as a clinician, Dr. Ali, can you share your perspective on changing doctors?

Dr. Nina Ali: Yeah. And, you know, that is a really tricky one, especially in my space of OB/GYNs. When you have gone through pregnancies and deliveries with your doctor, it is very personal and I myself, I have patients who will come see me and be like, “Is Dr. So-and-So going to know that I came here? Because I don’t wat to hurt their feelings,” type things. And I totally understand and get that. And I think at some point, women, and we maybe don’t do this naturally, but have to prioritize ourselves. And it’s not a statement against any other provider that you’re looking to seek care.

And I myself, if I see a patient and they may not agree with my plan and they go get another opinion from another specialist, that is what we want for our patients. We want them to feel fully informed on all their options and have their different recommendations, and then they get to decide. We have ownership over how our care is managed.

So, I think that there’s more – and I would say also within OB/GYN, providers who are not comfortable or don’t have time or for whatever reason don’t do as much care of menopause and this space, usually are grateful to have someone to refer to who will be able to provide that full care. And we also share. So, I may have some patients where I just do their menopause care, and they still continue to see their primary for their annual exams and their preventative health.

And so, there are so many models on how it can work, it just depends on that particular situation. But I think as healthcare providers, we are not going to fault any patient for wanting to get more opinions and kind of making informed decisions about their care.