An international team denounces the poor management of menopause today, and calls for improved pathways and more research.
Very poor sleep this summer because of the heat? A catastrophic outfit change due to extreme sweating? You then have a very small glimpse of the effects of menopause. Géraldine Zamansky, journalist for the Health Magazine on France 5, returns today to a study published this week, on the poor care of a large majority of women, when it comes to menopause.
franceinfo: This study shows significant deficiencies in the management of this hormonal revolution?
Geraldine Zamansky: Exactly. According to this international study, even in rich countries, only 15% of women suffering from menopausal symptoms would benefit from effective treatment. However, eight times out of ten, they experience the hot flashes that you mentioned, which are very disruptive to sleep and daily life.
Because the action of the hormones produced by the ovaries is not, in fact, limited to periods at all. Their disappearance can therefore also cause mood and concentration disorders, with a risk of depression. Without forgetting joint pain, urinary problems and intimate difficulties, due to vaginal dryness or even a loss of sexual desire, significant weight gain…
In addition to specifying this trying set, the authors of this study point out the large variations from one person to another. Including the age at which these disturbances begin. Sometimes, well before the age of fifty.
There are even more discreet effects like osteoporosis, weakening of bones?
This is part of what the authors call the “silent consequences” of losing the two hormones we’re talking about, estrogen and progesterone. The bones are not the only ones affected. Blood vessels too, with an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.
So the study concludes that systematic personalized assessments are urgently needed for all women around this milestone. Even if they have no noticeable symptoms. Because there are solutions. The main one is to replace these hormones, precisely.
It seems simple, why do so few women benefit from it?
The authors denounce the effect of an old American study which suggested risks of breast cancer, which have not since been confirmed. Dr Michel Mouly, gynecologist-obstetrician, deplores this all the more as French treatments have always been different. As he is also an oncologist, he relies on this dual specialty to reassure too many women who remain without treatment, despite their difficulties.
Prescriptions and follow-up must of course be defined individually and adapted over time. But the issues are not only medical. We must also lift the taboos that persist on this suffering. So we all have progress to make.