What exactly is menopause - here's how to best prepare and manage symptoms

ABC News (Australia) published this video item, entitled “What exactly is menopause – here’s how to best prepare and manage symptoms | ABC News” – below is their description.

Corrine Pohlman experienced unpleasant perimenopausal symptoms for more than a decade before she started treatment.
At 54 her periods became irregular, so she spoke to her doctor, concerned something “more sinister” could be going on because she’d had a cancer removed decades prior.
“He said, ‘No, you’re probably just starting menopause’,” Ms Pohlman, now 64, recalled.
“And I went: ‘Oh, the hell is that?'”
Within six months of that initial appointment, Ms Pohlman said other symptoms started “creeping in”, including hot flushes and difficulty sleeping.
“A hot flush, feels like you’re on fire from the inside,” she said.
The flushes were so unpredictable, Ms Pohlman stashed a fan in every bag.
“I have a fan in every handbag I own. And I own quite a lot of handbags,” she laughed.
Jean Hailes for Women’s Health chief executive Sarah White said one in four women and gender diverse people experienced moderate to severe perimenopausal symptoms that impacted their quality of life.
Dr White said there were also significant barriers to treatment: a lack of GPs who understood the symptoms and felt confident recommending treatment, misinformation, stigma and “predatory marketing” on social media promising solutions without evidence.
So what is menopause, and what’s the best way to prepare and manage symptoms?
“Menopause is actually just a single day in your life and it’s 12 months after your last period,” Dr White said.
“It’s basically when your ovaries stop functioning.”
The time leading up to menopause is called perimenopause and during this period people can experience a range of symptoms, including joint pain and difficulty sleeping.
“The most usual symptoms are what we call vasomotor symptoms, which is a fancy way really of saying hot flushes and night sweats,” Dr White said.
During perimenopause the body’s oestrogen and progesterone levels fluctuate and drop, which causes the symptoms and may also increase the risk of developing osteoporosis, heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
Dr White urged people not to catastrophise menopause, a natural phase that the typical Australian woman reaches at 51.
“We need to celebrate the fact that when we get to menopause, we’re incredibly wise, we know so much,” she said.
“And we’ve got a third of our lives to really live a great life in, rather than considering menopause as the end of everything.”
Up to 4 per cent of Australian women experience premature menopause before their 40th birthday, and around 12 per cent will go through menopause before they are 45.
Menopause cannot be prevented, but the symptoms can be managed.
Karen Magraith, a GP in Hobart and a former president of the Australasian Menopause Society, sees many patients who are going through this stage in their lives.
She recommends that people approaching menopause schedule a “midlife consultation” with their GP to assess their general health.
“The midlife consultation is the perfect opportunity to just have a look at general health, look at preventative health, and what sort of things women can do to set themselves up for good health as they age,” she said.
To minimise the severity of potential perimenopausal symptoms, Dr Magraith recommends women and gender diverse people approaching mid-age eat lots of leafy green vegetables, reduce their alcohol intake, quit smoking and exercise regularly with a routine that includes resistance training.
Dr Magraith said it was important that women also maintained a calcium-rich diet because menopause was a “turning point” in terms of bone health.
“In the time leading up to menopause, and the first perhaps two to five years afterwards, there’s accelerated loss of calcium from bones,” she said.
“Women need to find that extra time to put into their own health that they may not have had until now.
“That really does put them into a good position going forward, if they’re able to do that.”
Dr Magraith said the “most effective treatment” for hot flushes and night sweats was menopausal hormone therapy — medication that replaces the oestrogen the body has stopped making.
This medication, Dr Magraith explained, is also associated with a small increase in breast cancer risk.
Dr White said anyone considering the medication should talk to their doctor first.
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