Treatment Options For Early Menopause

When faced with early menopause, treatment options can be overwhelming, but it’s important that we speak to our healthcare professional about the options which are available to us and that we choose what will work best for us and our needs.

Hormone replacement therapy is exactly what the name says. It replaces the hormones in our body that our bodies naturally make with hormones created in a laboratory. Menopause means that we haven’t had our period in 12 months. It means we can no longer bear children and for those women who experience early menopause, the symptoms can be overwhelming and worse than those who experience menopause at a more normal time in their life. The normal age to go into menopause is between 45 and 55 with the average age being 51 to 52. Studies prove that most women are 51.75 years old at the time of menopause.

Not all women are the same and some women go into early menopause. The reasons behind this can vary from woman to woman.

During menopause, our bodies stop producing eggs. We’re producing less estrogen, a vital hormone to the woman makeup. When this happens, our bodies may react negatively. We may have severe mood swings, depression, anxiety and chronic fatigue.

Perimenopause refers to a 10 to 15 year period before menopause begins. During this time we may begin to notice some menopausal symptoms (the symptoms for both perimenopause and menopause can be very similar). It’s during perimenopause that our menstrual cycles become irregular. They may be more or less frequent, longer, shorter, lighter or heavier. We may experience headaches, excessive bloating and cramping.

When a woman has gone more than 60 days without a period, she’s entered into late menopause transition. Once a woman has gone for 12 months without a period, she’s officially in menopause.

Hormone replacement therapy is the replacement of estrogen in the body. If a woman has had her uterus surgically removed, she can undergo HRT alone. For women who still have their uterus and have a family history of breast cancer, uterine cancer, heart disease, blood clots or liver disease, hormone replacement therapy will be given in conjunction with progesterone to avoid hyperplasia.

Women who take hormone replacement therapy are at a higher risk for endometrial cancer and breast cancer. Other side effects include increased breast density, which can make mammograms more difficult to interpret. There is a slightly higher risk of ovarian cancer, blood clots and gallbladder disease. Women may experience temporary breast pain. Some women experience nausea with orally taken estrogen. Bloating and fluid retention are also risks.

And of course, mood swings and emotional problems such as depression and irritability. Most of the above side effects are more typically associated with estrogen which is taken orally.

Some women taking estrogen and progestin also experience monthly vaginal bleeding.

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Treatment Options For Early Menopause

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