Menopause

Latest News


CME Content


Hot flashes, hot flushes, power surges-- they go by a variety of names and are one of the most common symptoms of the perimenopause and menopause. Often a premenopausal woman will ask, "how will I know if I am having hot flashes"? This can be compared to the question a woman who has never had a baby asks, "how I will know if it's really a contraction"? If a woman is having significant hot flashes, she will not have to ask!

The benefits of using the patch for hormone replacement, with a few exceptions, are not significantly different from those when taken in a pill form. The choice should depend primarily upon the woman's preference, and for those choosing the patch there are a few small tricks for making it easier to use.

Losing your keys? Losing your patience? Losing your mind? If you are a midlife woman having difficulties, the solution may be increasing your estrogen level. More and more research studies are showing beneficial effects of hormone replacement on mental functioning. Women taking estrogen showed increased brain activation and reinstated patterns observed in younger subjects performing memory tasks, according to a recent study.

Bleeding after menopause or "postmenopausal bleeding" ("PMB") can be defined as the resumption of vaginal bleeding at least 6 months after a woman experiences her last menstrual period. This assumes of course that she is indeed menopausal ie. in her late 40's, perhaps having hot flashes and night sweats, mood swings, insomnia, perhaps experiencing some vaginal dryness.

Despite the major public health impact of leiomyomas, little is known about their cause. Until recently, the steroid hormones estrogen and progesterone were considered the most important regulators of leiomyoma growth. There is abundant evidence that estrogen promotes fibroid growth including the clinical observations that fibroids grow in the presence of high levels of estrogen, such as during the reproductive years, and that they regress in the presence of low levels of estrogen, such as following menopause or during gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) agonist therapy.

Hormone Replacement Therapy: In most European countries, the actual Guideline on the Evaluation of New Medicinal Products in the Treatment of Primary Osteoporosis is incomplete in that, unlike the previous Note for Guidance on Postmenopausal Osteoporosis in Women (EMEA 2001 Guidance), it fails to address the prevention of osteoporosis indication.

The world of menopausal care is changing. For many years, the scientific community involved in menopause research has been amassing evidence that the menopause is associated with multiple complaints and chronic diseases, and that postmenopausal hormone therapy has the potential to prevent or treat most of them.

Menopause and Hormones

Steroid hormones have a typical chemical structure. Their mechanism of action is through binding to a specific receptor which in the nucleus of the cell will induce effects at the genomic level.

Hormonal changes associated with menopause do not increase a woman’s risk for heart disease and heart disease mortality, according to new research published in BMJ. The work of Dr Dhananjay Vaidya, assistant professor of medicine at John Hopkins School of Medicine, and colleagues contradict the previously hypothesis that heart disease and heart attacks rise dramatically after menopause.

Cessation of hormone therapy in menopausal women may result in sleep disturbances, according to a new study in Menopause. Since the hormone therapy has been associated with the alleviation of sleep problems in women experiencing menopausal symptoms, Dr Sarah E Tom, Interdisciplinary Women’s Health Research (IWHR) Scholar at the University of Texas Medical School, and colleagues sought to determine the resulting sleep effects during cessation of hormone therapy.