Menopause - news and discussion thread

[Mij]

UK: Women forced to attend up to 10 GP appointments to get menopause diagnosis, study finds

Exclusive: Menopause expert warns women are enduring ‘needless barriers’ to treatment and are ‘suffering and confused’

Women are being forced to attend up to 10 GP appointments to get a menopause diagnosis, first-of-its-kind research has found.

The UK’s largest ever polling of perimenopausal and menopausal women, exclusively shared with The Independent, suggested almost five million GP hours are wasted on unnecessary menopause appointments due to the ignorance of health professionals.

An estimated 13 million women are going through the menopause in the UK, with a substantial proportion experiencing debilitating symptoms including heart palpitations, hot flushes, headaches, vaginal pain, anxiety and depression.

LINK

 

[alktipping]

they really like to tag on anxiety and depression to everything don't they . those two words seem to be very dismissive of two very serious comorbidities .

 

[NelliePledge]

Maybe they will finally start getting better checklists

 

[Kitty]

they really like to tag on anxiety and depression to everything don't they . those two words seem to be very dismissive of two very serious comorbidities .

I agree, but they can sometimes be useful in this context. I'm of an age where nearly all the women I know have now gone through menopause, and some of them did develop anxiety or depression.

It can be confusing, specially for people who're not used to experiencing symptoms like this and still have a functioning cycle (so they don't immediately think 'menopause'). For one good friend, debilitating anxiety arriving out of nowhere was the worst symptom, not least because she'd gone through most of her life about as anxious as a provoked bull crocodile. It was several years before she started feeling something like herself again, even with treatment.

 

[MrMagoo]

It’s sad when my friends start getting brain fog and poor sleep. It’s like an unspoken dread that they’ll end up like me

 

[bobbler]

Some of it might be good GPs etc checking it isn't something else, but given sending people away to see if they come back has been instigated for so many years now as some silly-minded way of 'cutting the cost of prescriptions' then I suspect there is a pathway under this.

From the outsider it seems bonkers because this is deliberately used even for things where the medication (eg for an ulcer) might be short and cheap compared to what they claim is the cost of even one GP appointment.

I've no idea who crunched the numbers (perhaps secretly) to work out the yearly or lifetime (I note both because it depends on who is doing this - the first relates to the more localised budget being the source, the latter you might think is some more 'for the greater good' claim) cost of the meds vs the 10 appointments. But I guess they also have no action-consequence because they are in different budget buckets. One person cheers that for that year they cut prescriptions, whilst another is claiming they can't meet patient demand on appointments and have no idea why.

 

[Mij]

they really like to tag on anxiety and depression to everything don't they . those two words seem to be very dismissive of two very serious comorbidities .

To be fair, anxiety and depression symptoms do occur during menopause and it can be very distressing. There were months during the early onset when I seriously fantasied about harming someone. I wouldn't have done it of course, but that's how I felt.

 

[Mij]

I know it's bad in the U.K and found it very interesting that my sister who works at a Saudi hospital had a telemedicine consult with a gynecologist in the UK and had no trouble getting a prescription sent to her doctor in Saudi for menopause because the medication is unavailable at the hospital where she works. Many women at he workplace did the same thing.

She told the telemedicine doctor that she felt 'flat' and the doctor immediately gave her support and said "I understand'"

 

[MrMagoo]

Menopause is one of “those” things that seems to get the GP’s back up. Nothing worse than going to a GP with a suggestion of what maybe wrong, you’ll end up in a battle of wills where they need to prove you wrong.

Also I think I read that when they send you for bloods, the test needs to be repeated over a few days/weeks to give an accurate picture of hormones, but in Uk they do it…once. Often the blood test won’t flag up the hormone change until after menopause.

I do think that if you knew there was an issue which affects nearly all women, nearly always between the ages of 35-55, which causes X, Y and Z, wouldn’t it be near the top of your investigation list when a woman of that age presents with X or Y or Z?

I think the HRT was in low supply. Also probably too expensive for “everyone” to have it.

Femal health has always been overlooked, we’re conditioned to “get on with it” and nobody really dies if you ignore these things so who cares, really.

 

[Kitty]

Also I think I read that when they send you for bloods, the test needs to be repeated over a few days/weeks to give an accurate picture of hormones, but in Uk they do it…once. Often the blood test won’t flag up the hormone change until after menopause.

They don't usually test at all, really. It's a fair assumption that if you're a certain age, hormone levels will be changing.

I'd have been surprised to be offered a test, and I think that would go for most of the women I know. We didn't need a doctor to diagnose the cause of tiredness, irritability, rubbish sleep, and being drenched in sweat every few minutes—it was more those that were thrown by unexpected mental health stuff, specially when it arrived before the more recognisable symptoms began.

I think the HRT was in low supply. Also probably too expensive for “everyone” to have it.

Far from everyone wants it, to be honest. A lot of people are concerned about cancer risks, and would much rather just see it through. What they need is recognition that for a time, they experience symptoms that can be very difficult to live with, it's a perfectly normal part of life, just like pregnancy—and just as in pregnancy, they sometimes need some support and accommodation.

 

[MrMagoo]

They don't usually test at all, really. It's a fair assumption that if you're a certain age, hormone levels will be changing.

I'd have been surprised to be offered a test, and I think that would go for most of the women I know. We didn't need a doctor to diagnose the cause of tiredness, irritability, rubbish sleep, and being drenched in sweat every few minutes—it was more those that were thrown by unexpected mental health stuff, specially when it arrived before the more recognisable symptoms began.



Far from everyone wants it, to be honest. A lot of people are concerned about cancer risks, and would much rather just see it through. What they need is recognition that for a time, they experience symptoms that can be very difficult to live with, it's a perfectly normal part of life, just like pregnancy—and just as in pregnancy, they sometimes need some support and accommodation.

But they didn’t have enough stock for those prescribed it the other year, and it’s been that way for a while. And it’s used for other conditions like PMDD. It’s normal to have a prescription but no chemists can dispense.

 

[Mij]

I'm going on nine years. I have asked my GP(now retired) of 35 years about HRT several times over the past years but I got the impression that she didn't feel it was necessary? She explained that it doesn't work for everyone, but when it does, it helps with hot flashes/night sweat and improves sleep. It doesn't improve energy levels and I got the impression she thought I wanted more 'energy'. Dunno. I left the clinic feeling like I should just 'wait it out'.

My sister told me that she would have had to retire early (56 yrs old) because she couldn't cope with the symptoms. She had the blood work done at her workplace, UK telemedicine consult with a doctor and now wears a hormone patch and feel good again.

 

[Kitty]

I'm going on nine years.

Yeah, much the same. My cycle stopped at age 45, and 20 years later I still have symptoms. My 88 year-old nan once informed me cheerfully that she'd never stopped having hot flushes!

At one point I couldn't work properly, as my hair and face were being drenched with sweat every eight or nine minutes. It was really extreme, I couldn't see properly because my eyes always had sweat running into them, and I had to change my top several times a day. I would never have taken HRT, but I couldn't be prescribed it anyway because a relative developed aggressive breast cancer linked to hormone supplementation. I was luckily that gabapentin reduced copious sweating down to normal hot flushes, or I don't think I'd have been able to carry on.

Older relatives told me my sleep and memory would never be the same again whether I took hormones or not, and I think that's probably about right! There's lot of variation, of course, but I've heard so many women express surprise about the scale of the memory effects. You hear a lot about 'baby brain' in pregnancy, but not so much about 'menopause brain'. Or in my case, menopause no-brain.

 

[Mij]

My 88 year-old nan once informed me cheerfully that she'd never stopped having hot flushes!

Yup, my aunt went well into her 80's with symptoms, her worse being increased heart palpitations/anxiety that scared her. She was on the patch which helped with hot flashes/sweats but nothing else.

Personally, I just want my sleep to go back to normal.

 

[Wyva]

I've been dreading menopause ever since I first heard about the symptoms in my teens. (And I'm not even someone prone to "health anxiety".) With ME/CFS it sounds even worse to have those additional symptoms. Really not looking forward to it...

 

[Hutan]

With ME/CFS it sounds even worse to have those additional symptoms. Really not looking forward to it...

Not to diminish the hard time some people have, but the time when I had symptoms was short and not much of a problem. Just some hot flushes, I can't remember much else. Of course, with ME/CFS, there's a significant amount of time feeling rubbish, so sometimes it's hard to tell what is what. But, for me with ME/CFS, menopause wasn't a big deal at all. It might be ok.

 

[Trish]

Crossposted with Hutan.

Huge sympathy to those with awful ongoing symptoms.

For those dreading it, a bit of hope is that it's not so bad for everyone.

I am one of the lucky ones with menopause. Last period age 44, hot flushes were just waves of heat that happened up to several times an hour and lasted a few minutes, but not heavy sweating. It's hard for me to tell whether other symptoms were part of my ME or menopause. I tried HRT patches for a month, but they made things worse so I stopped. I was so relieved not to have to deal with heavy, very painful periods any more that for me menopause was a blessing.

 

[Hutan]

From Jean Hailes for Women's Health (an Australian charity)
I don't know where they got the following from, but JHWH seem like a credible organisation:

About 20% of women have no symptoms at all, while 60% have mild to moderate symptoms. The remaining 20% have severe symptoms that interfere with their daily life.

 

[Spartacus]

I'm another one who didn't find it too bad. A few hot flushes, but nothing worse than the weird hot flushes I sometimes got anyhow with my combination of ME/fibromyalgia.

Menopause symptoms may be a bit of a shock for a woman who has been perfectly healthy up to menopause, but for me all the menopause symptoms just blended in with all of the rest of my symptoms, so it was not a big deal.

It has been a few years now, and I have to say it is a relief not to have the monthly downturn in my ME symptoms that I used to have pre menopause. Also hardly any migraines now!!

I never even thought about taking HRT, as I just don't find it easy to tolerate medication.

Glad I went through the menopause before Davina Mccall started terrifying women about it.

 

[Kitty]

Menopause symptoms may be a bit of a shock for a woman who has been perfectly healthy up to menopause, but for me all the menopause symptoms just blended in with all of the rest of my symptoms, so it was not a big deal.

It was great for me, even though I had a rough time! If you've struggled for 30-odd years with endometriosis, the day your periods stop is a massive celebration. Every day I felt stressed, sleep-deprived, and embarrassed by the fact I looked as if I'd just walked in to the office out of a downpour, I was still cheering that I'd never have to go through a cycle again.

And as you say, many don't have a bad time. My best mate never had a problematic period in her life and found the menopause a minor inconvenience. She said if she hadn't seen me passing out from pain, having to rush to the bathroom to either throw up or change after a massive flood of bleeding, and then watch as my body produced enough sweat to drench my clothing, she'd have struggled to believe that people's symptoms really are that bad.