It’s time for the narrative around ‘the change’ to change, campaigners say. Research from the independent Nuffield Health group found that two thirds (67%) of women say “there is a general lack of support or advice for those going through menopause”.
In the UK alone, 13 million women are living either perimenopausally, known as the ten years leading up to the menopause, or post menopausally, when menstruation has stopped.
There are around 34 associated symptoms of menopause. In 13 million women, three in four will experience symptoms, with one in four experiencing severe symptoms. Symptoms so severe that one in ten will consider leaving their job. Despite this, only one in three will go to their GP about it.
If they make it to the GP, menopause awareness advocates say there’s a knowledge gap in the understanding, which they say can often lead to a misdiagnosis, therefore, inappropriate advice.
What is menopause?
The clinical diagnosis for menopause is a year and a day from a women’s last period. Eggs in the ovaries run out, meaning the hormones produced: oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone reduce. However, what causes the symptoms associated with menopause are the intense hormone fluctuations that happen during the time leading up to menopause, known as perimenopause.
Symptoms of menopause
Most cells in the body have an oestrogen receptor. This means a reduction in the hormone can result in symptoms that affect the whole body, causing commonly associated side effects, such as hot flushes, right through to the lesser-known ones such as poor memory, loss of confidence, vaginal atrophy, bladder problems and heart palpitations. The issue is when people present with these symptoms it’s easy to misdiagnose them as something else.
GP and menopause specialist Dr Rebecca Lewis, from the Newson Health Menopause and Wellbeing Centre, one of the few menopause specialists in the UK says this is because doctors practice in areas of expertise.
“If someone goes to see somebody about their muscle and joint pains, they might not understand that it’s due to their hormone problems rather than something like arthritis”.
Katie Taylor, the founder of the online community The Latte Lounge, which prioritises menopause support, was sent to three doctors over the course of four years before she realised she was perimenopausal.
“I told them I felt like I was walking through treacle, like a thick fog, and they told me that I was depressed”.
“I went back and they sent me to a cardiologist for the heart palpitations and there was nothing wrong with me. They then sent me to a neurologist to see if there was early-onset dementia and there was nothing wrong with me. And then to a psychiatrist because I wondered if I was a hypochondriac”.
The mental health symptoms can be worse than the physical
Menopause counsellor and founder of the Make Menopause Matter campaign, Diane Danzebrink went into surgical menopause after having both her ovaries and womb removed in her forties.
“Within a few months of my surgery, I became a husk of the person I used to be. I was almost non-functioning in every way”.
“I nearly drove my car in front of a lorry. I can’t tell you how I drove home because I don’t remember that journey. But that was the crucial point that lead me to getting the help that I needed”.
Diane isn’t alone in this. Data from the ONS shows that suicide rates for women peak between the ages of 45 and 55, and the average age of menopause is 51.
Treatment for menopause
For most people, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) works well by restoring hormone levels to their normal physiological balance, not at a higher level.
Dr Rebecca Lewis explains the long term benefits of taking HRT.
“We know that if you take HRT within 10 years of your last period, you can halve your risk of heart disease and help prevent osteoporosis. In younger women, it’s been shown that it can reduce their risk of dementia, type 2 diabetes and obesity.”
Having said this, HRT isn’t appropriate for everyone. Some people aren’t able to take it for medical reasons, others prefer alternative methods like cognitive behavioural therapy or lifestyle changes.
Only around 10% of menopausal people take HRT, with many hesitant due to findings from a Women’s Health Initiative study in 2002 that incorrectly reported an association with breast cancer.
“In the study, women who got given oestrogen and progesterone were compared to women who got a placebo”, says Dr Avrum Blumng, an HRT specialist and author of Oestrogen Matters.
“There was a decreased risk of breast cancer among women who were given the placebo”.
“Why? If you look at the women who took the placebo, some of them had been taking oestrogen before they entered the study and were randomised to the placebo group. If you remove from the placebo group the women who had been taking oestrogen, the reported increased risk disappears.”
What needs to change?
Campaigners say menopause education should be made compulsory for all medical students.
Currently, the General Medical Council sets the medical school outcomes and lists women’s health as a topic. However, it is up to the individual medical school curriculums to decide how they teach it.
We reached out to the General Medical Council and Royal College of GPs to comment on this, but no one was available.
We did however reach out to a number of medical schools and they told us that their menopause education consisted of an introductory lecture, where students are then encouraged to pursue their own education through independent study.
The Government did announce a call for evidence into women’s health earlier this year with a particular focus on menopause, however it does not close until September, so it is not yet known what changes, if any, will be made as result.
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HeadlineMajority of women say ‘there is a general lack of support or advice for those going through menopause’
Short HeadlineThe impact of the menopause knowledge gap
Standfirst50% of the population will experience it, yet there's only a handful of doctors who are specialists in it. City News invesitgates the impact.
It’s time for the narrative around ‘the change’ to change, campaigners say. Research from the independent Nuffield Health group found that two thirds (67%) of women say “there is a general lack of support or advice for those going through menopause”.
In the UK alone, 13 million women are living either perimenopausally, known as the ten years leading up to the menopause, or post menopausally, when menstruation has stopped.
There are around 34 associated symptoms of menopause. In 13 million women, three in four will experience symptoms, with one in four experiencing severe symptoms. Symptoms so severe that one in ten will consider leaving their job. Despite this, only one in three will go to their GP about it.
If they make it to the GP, menopause awareness advocates say there’s a knowledge gap in the understanding, which they say can often lead to a misdiagnosis, therefore, inappropriate advice.
What is menopause?
The clinical diagnosis for menopause is a year and a day from a women’s last period. Eggs in the ovaries run out, meaning the hormones produced: oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone reduce. However, what causes the symptoms associated with menopause are the intense hormone fluctuations that happen during the time leading up to menopause, known as perimenopause.
Symptoms of menopause
Most cells in the body have an oestrogen receptor. This means a reduction in the hormone can result in symptoms that affect the whole body, causing commonly associated side effects, such as hot flushes, right through to the lesser-known ones such as poor memory, loss of confidence, vaginal atrophy, bladder problems and heart palpitations. The issue is when people present with these symptoms it’s easy to misdiagnose them as something else.
GP and menopause specialist Dr Rebecca Lewis, from the Newson Health Menopause and Wellbeing Centre, one of the few menopause specialists in the UK says this is because doctors practice in areas of expertise.
“If someone goes to see somebody about their muscle and joint pains, they might not understand that it’s due to their hormone problems rather than something like arthritis”.
Katie Taylor, the founder of the online community The Latte Lounge, which prioritises menopause support, was sent to three doctors over the course of four years before she realised she was perimenopausal.
“I told them I felt like I was walking through treacle, like a thick fog, and they told me that I was depressed”.
“I went back and they sent me to a cardiologist for the heart palpitations and there was nothing wrong with me. They then sent me to a neurologist to see if there was early-onset dementia and there was nothing wrong with me. And then to a psychiatrist because I wondered if I was a hypochondriac”.
The mental health symptoms can be worse than the physical
Menopause counsellor and founder of the Make Menopause Matter campaign, Diane Danzebrink went into surgical menopause after having both her ovaries and womb removed in her forties.
“Within a few months of my surgery, I became a husk of the person I used to be. I was almost non-functioning in every way”.
“I nearly drove my car in front of a lorry. I can’t tell you how I drove home because I don’t remember that journey. But that was the crucial point that lead me to getting the help that I needed”.
Diane isn’t alone in this. Data from the ONS shows that suicide rates for women peak between the ages of 45 and 55, and the average age of menopause is 51.
Treatment for menopause
For most people, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) works well by restoring hormone levels to their normal physiological balance, not at a higher level.
Dr Rebecca Lewis explains the long term benefits of taking HRT.
“We know that if you take HRT within 10 years of your last period, you can halve your risk of heart disease and help prevent osteoporosis. In younger women, it’s been shown that it can reduce their risk of dementia, type 2 diabetes and obesity.”
Having said this, HRT isn’t appropriate for everyone. Some people aren’t able to take it for medical reasons, others prefer alternative methods like cognitive behavioural therapy or lifestyle changes.
Only around 10% of menopausal people take HRT, with many hesitant due to findings from a Women’s Health Initiative study in 2002 that incorrectly reported an association with breast cancer.
“In the study, women who got given oestrogen and progesterone were compared to women who got a placebo”, says Dr Avrum Blumng, an HRT specialist and author of Oestrogen Matters.
“There was a decreased risk of breast cancer among women who were given the placebo”.
“Why? If you look at the women who took the placebo, some of them had been taking oestrogen before they entered the study and were randomised to the placebo group. If you remove from the placebo group the women who had been taking oestrogen, the reported increased risk disappears.”
What needs to change?
Campaigners say menopause education should be made compulsory for all medical students.
Currently, the General Medical Council sets the medical school outcomes and lists women’s health as a topic. However, it is up to the individual medical school curriculums to decide how they teach it.
We reached out to the General Medical Council and Royal College of GPs to comment on this, but no one was available.
We did however reach out to a number of medical schools and they told us that their menopause education consisted of an introductory lecture, where students are then encouraged to pursue their own education through independent study.
The Government did announce a call for evidence into women’s health earlier this year with a particular focus on menopause, however it does not close until September, so it is not yet known what changes, if any, will be made as result.