It is nice to simplify menopause, in good will, but too much simplification backfires. There is an extremely wide array of severe symptoms that menopause encompasses, often most challenging at the outset of perimenopause, when it is in “Camouflage”. Initially menopause can mimic any, and every disease entity, stemming from brain hormone imbalance, where ignorance of the symptoms nature adds insult to the injury of their occurrence. Nausea, vomiting, bloating, itching, tingling, palpitations, joint pains, headaches, head burning, gripes and cramps, numbness, memory lapses, short temper, pelvic -floor dysfunction, incontinence issues, restlessness, abnormal gait, sweating, tear -shedding, spittle production, hiccups, choking episodes, severe fatigue, stupor, pains- frequently excruciating, reaching to repeated howling, seizures and gasps like in my rare case, could be encompassed. It is also crucial to know that menopause duration is variable, from only few years, to more than thirteen years like in my case, so far.
An indispensable strategy for combatting menopause, is a healthy diet rich in nutritional factors and plant estrogen sources, an active lifestyle, and evasion of unhealthy habits. The cornerstone of treatment remains HRTS, yet they are the MOST RISKY, and threatening to our health after menopause. Antidepressants, which also have their drawbacks, are less effective. Acupuncture is questionable.
On that basis- already abbreviated, a woman is the owner of her decision and consequences. Let me here dare say, if a woman can be a heroine to bear menopause, her ailment might turn her healer- through hot flashes, as I have experienced, after eternity!!
Dr Hana Fayyad