Current and Future Trends of Menopause Therapy: An Expert Interview With Dr. Ivy Alexander

Ivy Alexander, PhD, ANP-BC

Medscape: What are the specific symptoms related to menopausal changes?

Dr. Alexander: There are many, and they vary for the individual woman. Most women will experience changes in their menses with irregular bleeding, either longer or shorter periods or longer or shorter lengths of time in between getting a period. Many women also have changes in flow and experience heavier or lighter periods.

Other really common symptoms include hot flashes, vaginal dryness, difficulty with sleep, irritability, and mood swings, although these last two are probably related to sleep disturbances. In addition, perimenopausal and postmenopausal women often complain of difficulty with their memory — cognition — and that is also usually related to sleep disturbances.^[1-3]

Additional symptoms related to menopause include things like acne, changes in skin tone, wrinkles and dryness, hair changes with dry or thinning hair, or changes in the character of the hair. For example, if the person’s hair was curly, it might be less so. Some women have difficulty with headaches, nervousness, anxiety, irregular heartbeats or palpitations, and urinary changes. Lastly, the vaginal dryness that is associated with menopause comes from vaginal atrophy and can cause pain and discomfort with sexual intercourse or sexual activity.

Medscape: Are these symptoms directly related to menopause or do comorbidities, such as diabetes or heart conditions, affect the types of symptoms perimenopausal and postmenopausal women experience?

Dr. Alexander: Several of the symptoms that occur in menopause are directly related to changes in the hormone levels in the woman’s body. These changes occur because the hormone receptors throughout the body are no longer bound with the hormone and, thus, cause symptoms.

Because some of these symptoms can also mimic other health problems, such as diabetes with blood sugar shifts, untreated high blood pressure, and thyroid disease or, in the case of mood disorders and sleep problems, depression, it can be difficult to determine whether it is menopause or some other health problem that is affecting a woman at midlife. Occasionally, the symptoms are related to menopause and also complicated with another condition. Once the diagnosis is made, treating and managing the other condition may significantly reduce the symptoms related to menopause, but they likely will remain to some degree. More info from this article

“Do you have a cold or the flu? Although both are caused by a virus, it can be important to identify if you are sick with a simple cold or the flu, since there are treatments for the flu. Also, if you have the flu, people around you who have been exposed can take preventative medications so that they don’t get sick too.”
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Lord Fairfaix EMS Council donates AED after heart-stopping collision of players
from The Northern Virginia Daily
“STRASBURG — In recognition of this past March’s heart-stopping — literally — collision between two Strasburg High School baseball players, the baseball complex is being given an automated electronic defibrillator.”
enior Will Orndorff’s chest met sophomore Shelden Stickley’s head as both went for a fly ball in the outfield during practice March 31 at Sandy Hook Elementary School’s fields.

“While Stickley suffered a concussion, Orndorff had to be airlifted to Winchester Medical Center. He had suffered a rare condition known as commotio cordis, in which the heart’s rhythm becomes irregular. According to the medical information Web site emedicine.medscape.com, commotio cordis can cause sudden death when something, often a baseball, strikes the chest.”
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“Your body’s stress reaction was meant to protect you. But when it’s constantly on alert, your health can pay the price. Take steps to control your stress.” from the Mayo Clinic Staff
Stress is a normal psychological and physical reaction to the demands of life. But when you’re unable to cope well with the stress in your life, your mind and body may pay the price.

“Your body is hard-wired by nature to react to stress in a way originally meant to protect you against perceived threats from predators and aggressors. But today’s many demands may include managing a huge workload, making ends meet, taking care of aging parents as well as young children, and simply making it through the morning rush hour. You may feel overwhelmed by these daily stressors and wonder if you’ll ever get a handle on all of these extra “threats” — you can empower yourself to do so.”
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The Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation and the Avon Foundation for Women, a global leader in breast cancer research, joined forces to launch the Love/Avon Army of Women.

Our revolutionary initiative has two key goals:

* To recruit one million healthy women of every age and ethnicity, including breast cancer survivors and women at high-risk for the disease, to partner with breast cancer researchers and directly participate in the research that will eradicate breast cancer once and for all.
* To challenge the scientific community to expand its current focus to include breast cancer prevention research conducted on healthy women.

Join us in this movement that will take us beyond a cure by creating new opportunities to study what causes breast cancer—and how to prevent it.

http://www.armyofwomen.org/aboutusMore Information

Decisions about surgery depend on many factors.

“This is just a roadblock on your way to successful living. You sort of have to figure out how you’re going to get around or get over that roadblock. Our goal with the surgery is to try to maximize the ability of the patient to function. We want to get them back to living. ”

Thomas Frazier M.D.

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