Some doctors say your lipstick and hairspray may cause symptoms of early onset menopause.
Tag: menopause
Will This Pill Fix Your Sex Life?
Pharma’s race for a ‘pink viagra’ finally has a winner, and the promises for it are grand. Osphena, as the recently FDA-approved drug is called, is the newest answer for painful sex. The drug’s creator, pharmaceutical company Shionogi, Inc., is particularly interested in the more than 64 million U.S. women who have hit menopause, half of whom, it claims, could use the drug. In theory, that’s a lot of women who could be having a lot better sex, and soon.
Leslie Snow: Solving the Menopause Mystery
I wasn’t sure I wanted to accept an invitation to her menopause party. After all, I’m a full six months away from being 50. Plus I needed more information about her symptoms before I agreed with her menopause declaration. “So tell me, seriously,” I said, “What makes you so sure you’re experiencing ‘the change’?”
Why Menopause?
Last fall, a 96-year-old man named Ramajit Raghav became a father. No woman could become a mother at 96, or even 76. That’s because women typically lose the capacity to have children around the age 50–not because they become decrepit, not because civilization has poisoned them, but because they undergo a distinct biological transition, known as menopause.
FDA Panel Rejects Depomed Menopause Treatment
Shares of Depomed slid Friday after a panel of advisers to the Food and Drug Administration overwhelmingly voted against its drug to treat hot flashes and other symptoms of menopause.
How TV Shows Handle Menopause
One of the things that grabbed me most about the new Netflix House of Cards—other than the fact that I watched all 13 episodes in a 24-hour span—was the superb performance by Robin Wright. As Rep. Francis Underwood’s intensely focused wife, Claire, Wright managed to convey ruthlessness and driving ambition while also suggesting that Claire was questioning some of her life choices, especially when it came to love and romance. But since Claire is the sort of woman who is slow to trust and share, Wright had to express this inner turmoil in a guarded, coded way.
There’s a transactional quality to many of Claire’s relationships—much of her social life revolves around stage-managed appearances alongside her politician husband or fundraisers for the nonprofit she runs. And so she doesn’t open up with many people. Still, it’s striking how utterly reluctant she is to acknowledge the hot flashes she appears to experience early in the show. A female friend who notices her lingering for longer than is strictly necessary in front of the refrigerator tries to start a conversation about hot flashes and night sweats, but Claire simply changes the subject. Later, Francis brings up the same refrigerator pause, in what seems to be an attempt to shake Claire’s steely composure. Read full article.
KCTV5 Special Report: Association found between chemicals and early menopause
FAIRWAY, KS (KCTV) – It was Benjamin Franklin who famously said, “The only things certain in life are death and taxes.” Women can add a third certainty to that list: menopause. There is no way around this body change that marks an end to a woman’s fertility.
For women like Olathe resident Michele Zook, menopause means learning to deal with an array of unpleasant symptoms including hot flashes, night sweats, sleep disturbances and mood swings.
“It’s crappy. It’s disruptive. It’s unpredictable. It sucks,” Zook said. Zook’s menopause kicked in at the expected time, her early 50s.
She is being treated by obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Danielle Staecker, a University of Kansas Hospital physician who’s been practicing medicine for two decades. In the last few years, Staecker says she’s noticed a shift in the women she sees for menopause.
“I’m definitely seeing more women having symptoms of menopause at an earlier age,” Staecker said.
Research conducted at Washington University in St. Louis is providing a possible first clue to those increased cases of early menopause.
Dr. Amber Cooper and a team of researchers studied the blood and urine samples of 5,708 women, looking at more than 100 different chemicals. They were able to make an association between women in early menopause and elevated levels of phthalates, man-made chemicals known to mimic estrogen. Read full article.
Cancer gene mutation linked to earlier menopause
(Reuters Health) – Women carrying BRCA mutations tied to breast and ovarian cancer may hit menopause a few years earlier than other women, according to a new study.
Doctors already discuss with those women whether they want immediate surgery to remove their ovaries and breasts, or if they want to start a family first and hold off on ovary removal.
“Now they have an additional issue to deal with,” said Dr. Mitchell Rosen, who worked on the new study at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center.
An estimated one in 600 U.S. women carries the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation.
Those mutations greatly increase the risk of breast and ovarian cancer. According to the National Cancer Institute, a woman’s chance of getting breast cancer at some point in her life increases from 12 to 60 percent with a BRCA mutation, and ovarian cancer from 1.4 percent to between 15 and 40 percent. Read full article.
For menopause, estrogen fears overblown
Millions of women are needlessly suffering from the effects of menopause: the intrusive hot flashes, night sweats and wet linens; the inability to fall back asleep in the middle of the night; “brain fog”; and depression, as well as the negative impact on one’s love life (loss of interest, dryness and actual pain).
All these symptoms and more could be relieved by replacing lost estrogen. Yet many women – and their doctors – are paralyzed with fear about the safety of hormones.
We are living in the long shadow of negative press that surrounded the initial release of the Women’s Health Initiative study results. Ten years ago, media reports suggested that rates of breast cancer, stroke and heart disease were unacceptably high in hormone users (equine estrogen and synthetic progesterone) compared with those women who were taking the placebo (dummy pill). The study was stopped prematurely after five years.
However, early results of estrogen-alone trials involving women with a hysterectomy, published two years later with little media attention, showed lower rates of heart disease, diabetes in women under 60 and breast cancer in all age groups. Yes, lower rates of breast cancer. Read full article.
Memory Problems in Menopause Most Severe First Year After Last Period
Memory problems experienced by women as they approach and go through menopause appear to be most severe during the first stage of post-menopause, according to a new study published in the journal Menopause.
“Women going through menopausal transition have long complained of cognitive difficulties such as keeping track of information and struggling with mental tasks that would have otherwise been routine,” said lead author Miriam Weber, Ph.D., a neuropsychologist at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC).
“This study suggests that these problems not only exist but become most evident in women in the first year following their final menstrual period.”
For the study, researchers tracked 117 women who took a variety of tests assessing their cognitive skills. The participants reported on menopause-related symptoms such as hot flashes, sleep problems,depression and anxiety, and gave a sample of blood to determine current levels of estradiol (an indicator of estrogen levels) and follicle-stimulating hormone.
Results were analyzed to see if there were group differences in cognitive performance, and if these differences were linked to menopausal symptoms. Read full article.