New research review = a bit of clarity
New research review = a bit of clarity
+ your free weekly roundup of hopefully helpful things
There is a major gap in menopause research, better treatment options are needed and the whole damn thing needs a new name.
Those were some of the findings of a comprehensive review conducted by a team of international experts and published this week in the journal Cell.
The project, which looked at 200 resources over more than 70 years, was led by Monash University Women’s Health Research Program head Professor Susan Davis. Reading this rational assessment of the current situation felt like pouring the cool water of calm, curious and constructive scientific minds on a fire of conflict-of-interest driven hype and hyperbole, fear-inducing social media posts, and a whole lot of angry polarization.
In a week where I saw a popular doctor on Instagram confidently calling menopause a pathology that only appeared 100 years ago, when we all used to die at 50, I loved this in particular:
“Recognition that menopause, for most women, is a natural biological event, does not exempt the use of interventions to alleviate symptoms.”
I’m going to break it down in more detail in future posts, but here are some important top lines:
• The average age of menopause globally is cited here as 49, two years younger that what we usually hear.
• Menopause sparks changes that can have short and long-term impact: “The hormonal changes of the menopause transition may result in both symptoms and long-term systemic effects, predominantly adverse effects on cardiometabolic and musculoskeletal health.”
• There is a dearth of research on menopause, and in perimenopausal women in particular. (Just a reminder from me: There are currently only 6,000 all-time studies in Pubmed, the US National Institutes of Health database, on perimenopause, and just 94k on menopause. Compare that to 1.1 million+ on pregnancy, something everyone goes through.)
• Shifting the definition for menopause away from the last period to “final cessation of ovarian function” would accommodate people who don’t have periods or regular periods for a variety of reasons, and extend perimenopause into that weird 12-months you need to be without a period until you are officially considered “done”
• The authors question age restrictions on prescriptions and therapies when no one really understands the "timeline of menopause phases” and the transition varies so much from person to person.
• They point out that every treatment – no matter how well-researched – has side effects and can potentially cause health problems, including hormone therapy.
• Regular exercise and eating a protein-rich nutritious diet can reduce symptoms and health complications.
• More research is needed in a number of other areas, including socioeconomic factors, menopause at work, and it needs to be done outside high-income countries and jobs, too
• Why menopause happens when it does? We still might find out, with the authors writing: “observations suggest that some yet unidentified controller of reproductive aging might reside in the central nervous system and contribute to the events that precipitate ovarian failure at midlife”.
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More science stuff
• Most women are completely uninformed about menopause and have negative attitudes to it before 40, leaving them totally ill-equipped to deal with it, according to a new study out of the UK published in BMC Women’s Health.
• P&G’s Clearblue has released a Menopause Stage Indicator and people are confused about it. Here’s my analysis (paid) and Dr Jen Gunter’s, too.
• A new study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association Trusted Source found that women experiencing stress and insomnia are at a greater risk of developing atrial fibrillation after menopause. The researchers pulled data from 83,736 women between 50 and 79 who were part of the Women’s Health Initiative between 1994 and 1998. They found 23,954 cases of this abnormal heart rhythm, AFib for short, which can lead to more serious problems.
I’m just telling you:
Feminade is an interesting entry on the market, combining traditionally separate (and still controversial) 24-hour urine and saliva tests in one. Among the measurements are “estrogens and clinically relevant estrogen metabolites, which allow for assessment of cancer risk factors and detoxification pathways”. We don’t all produce and detoxify our estrogen the same way, and some of those ways are problematic, and there are definitely things we can do about it. However, this is a subject of much debate when it comes to mainstream vs integrative/functional medicine. Feminade also assesses progesterone activity, DHEA, androgen and adrenal function. The test is US$329, major savings from the Dutch Plus (with both urine and saliva) for $650. Feminade comes with a 30-minute online consultation, assessment, care plan and unlimited support.
You know where else you can also find out about estrogen detoxification? DNA testing. If you are interested, check out my podcast with The DNA Company founder Kashif Khan and prepare to have your mind blown by what he says. Then get 10% off your own report using the code HOTFLASHINC
The Hot Resignation
The menopause transition lands between 45 and 55 and can take upwards of a decade – prime working years for women whether they are on a construction site, behind the till at McDonald’s or writing social media captions in a gaily decorated cubicle.
Enter The Hot Resignation, a new website, free downloadable toolkit and handy fun GIF-maker for LinkedIn, all aimed at getting human resources to pay attention to one of their biggest assets – us – and do something g about menopause-related resignations.
This project is a partnership between TBWA\Chiat\Day NY’s Health Collective, the American division of ad agency TBWA Worldwide, and the Menopause Information Pack for Organizations, a free, open-access suite of resources for workplaces.
Meanwhile, this Business Insider story sure nails it with the headline Women are always the wrong age. I’m not sure starting out with an anecdote about a female sports anchor is entirely relevant to all of us, but it is so damn true that there is always something about here we are at that can be held against us in a way that would never happen with men.
BUT, this article in the New York Times from August reports some companies – EBay, Nvidia, Wiley and Capgemini – are adding menopause care into their benefits package to attract and retain us. Again, narratives aside, we are not expendable.
Read, click, listen, watch and follow
• 10 Biohacking Tools To Help You Better Understand Your Body as a Woman Rescripted
• "You're getting a version of Pip today that's the rawest one because I'm right in the thick of it.” Fashion designer Pip Edwards choks back tears talking about perimenopause on the Phoebe Burgess' podcast Under The Gloss
• Leanne Morgan Turned Her Night Sweats and ‘Chicken Fuzz’ Hair Into Netflix Special Comedy Gold Yahoo
• Latest in Wellness Travel: The Menopause Retreat New York Times
• Dear Abby: Could perimenopause be causing my wife’s nasty mood? (Her answer is priceless) Silive
• “Menopausal women are an undervalued demographic”: Why menopause should be something to celebrate Atlanta Journal-Constitution
• “A lot of women are horny at this age.” Go Naomi Watts! Naomi Watts had ‘great sex’ with husband Billy Crudup after showing him menopause patches Yahoo
• One Terrible, No-Good (And Often Overlooked) Side Effect Of Menopause (it’s gut stuff) British Vogue
• Being super-fit doesn’t mean you get a menopause hall pass: Former 'Biggest Loser' Trainer Erica Lugo, 36, Says Doctor Dismissed Perimenopause Symptoms: 'I Felt So Sad and Broken' People
Editor’s note
Congratulations to professor of reproductive science Joyce Harper and her work launching The National Menopause Education and Support Programme out of University College London.
“I have surveyed over 6000 women to ask their views on perimenopause and menopause,” she says in the announcement. “Very few women said they felt fully informed about menopause before symptoms started, with more than 60 percent reporting searching for information when their symptoms started.”
Harper and her colleagues Dr Shema Tariq (UCL Institute for Global Health) and Dr Nicky Keay (UCL Medicine) have partnered with The Wellbeing of Women and Sophia Forum and supported by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and British Menopause Society (BMS).
In a world where it takes the least amount of effort to complain about the way things are, and the most to actually do anything about it, this is groundbreaking effort aimed at actually helping people. And if you want to know a little more about Professor Harper – a fellow MenoClarity member – and her work, check out her episode on the Hotflash inc podcast.
AMx
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