No more suffering in silence for menopausal women

Health, Beauty and Lifestyle with Denise McNamara

The catalogue of pain, suffering and frustration revealed by women across the airwaves over the last fortnight may yet prove a game-changer in the battle for specialised menopause services in this country.  What has been truly shocking is the lack of awareness by GPs about the myriad of symptoms that the change of life can bring.

Instead of getting some tailored help for the loss of hormones, women have been dismissed with prescriptions for antidepressants.

The endless tales of heartbreak on RTE’s Liveline began with an email from Sallyanne Brady, who co-founded the Irish Menopause Facebook group.

She explained how she had lost five years of her life when she suffered from tinnitus, migraine, vertigo, brain fog, digestive issues, exhaustion and insomnia.

She mentors women through the change, insisting that they should not have to go through it alone.

“We need to help women realise that they are not imagining or exaggerating their symptoms. The GPs and specialists I went to didn’t have a clue even though I said it was the menopause. Many of them aren’t trained or equipped to help women in the menopause,” she stressed.

Reluctance among GPs to prescribe hormone replacement therapy (HRT) emerged following a 2002 US study which found a link between HRT and breast cancer. That study has been largely debunked as it involved older women who would have a higher risk of cancer.

Yet there is considerable disagreement about what types of medication to prescribe. Some medics are advocates of ‘body identical’ HRT made from wild yams said to replicate closely oestrogen and progesterone.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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