Talking about "menopause", Zhimei found a phenomenon on the Internet, and many netizens asked for help online: "Mom is menopausal, what should I do?"
And most of the troubles are expressed like this...
"My mom seems to be in menopausal and throwing a tantrum like crazy, is this the case with your mom?"
"How many years does menopause take?" It's so hard to have an old mother who is menopausal. ”
"Tell her that it may be menopause, and she will feel that you say that she is sick, that she will not admit it when she dies, and that it is impossible to eat it after buying medicine..."
"Sometimes I feel like she's overdoing, and it really hurts my dad!" It felt like if I were, I wouldn't be able to live with her! ”
(Source: The Golden Wedding)
"Like crazy", "Too hard", "Dead don't admit it", "Overdoing", "Can't live together"...
It's a lot of people's "stereotypes" of menopausal women, but do you know how women who are actually in menopause feel?
They often feel like there's a fire burning in their backs, and whether they're working or chatting with others, it's constantly happening, sweating profusely, and it's embarrassing.
(Source: Xinglin Online)
The pain in their bodies for no reason, and it lasts for a long time, makes them irritable, but in the eyes of others, it is a disease-free moan.
Will not be able to control their emotions, a little thing will be violent, but after the tantrum will immediately regret ...
As bystanders, we see "menopause" more as a common phenomenon in women after middle age.
When this period of time is "passed", the mother will automatically return to normal, which is not a disease at all, and there is no need to go to the hospital for a lot of trouble.
However, for women, menopause, also known as perimenopause, is a transitional period in which ovarian function gradually declines from a vigorous state to a complete disappearance, including menopause and a period before and after menopause.
Image source: Stand Cool Helo
During menopause, women undergo drastic physical and mental changes. A significant number of women are plagued by a range of symptoms due to the rapid decrease in estrogen levels, which affect physical and mental health.
At present, in the mainland, surveys show that only 28.9% of menopausal women will seek medical help because of menopausal symptoms [1], and more women can only suffer from various physical and mental discomforts in silence.
The average age of menopause in mainland women is 49.5 years, and 80% are between the ages of 44 and 54 [2].
Many people think that menopausal women are not easy to mess with, because they are grumpy and explode, and they feel very tired without doing anything every day.
In fact, these are all chain reactions of perimenopausal hormonal disorders, not pretensions, but signals for the body to call for help.
According to the literature, 15.7% of postmenopausal women in mainland China experience menopause-related symptoms, with insomnia (44.7%), fatigue (40.4%) and mood swings (37.2%) being the most common [3].
Specifically, when it comes to menopause, the female body will generally undergo the following changes, please do not think that it is normal, but give her a little more care.
1. Hot flashes, sweating
Discomfort is mainly due to vasomotor caused by decreased or fluctuating estrogen.
2. Symptoms of autonomic disorders
It is mainly manifested as sleep disorders, palpitations, headaches, dizziness, and easy fatigue.
3. Neuropsychiatric symptoms
Anxiety or depression, insomnia, inability to control emotions, etc.
4. It is easy to have back pain and the risk of fracture becomes high
In menopause, the decline in estrogen levels will cause rapid loss of calcium in the bones, weaken muscle strength, and lead to weak support of the waist and leg joints, and back pain.
Rapid bone loss also means shrinking height, hunchback, and "brittleness" of bones.
Menopause occurs before and after menopause, but women do not have to wait until after menopause to experience a series of menopause troubles.
From the beginning of the decline of ovarian function, the "menopausal syndrome" has quietly sprouted in the body.
Image source: Stand Cool Helo
Of course not!
Reasonable and effective treatment of "menopausal syndrome" can not only alleviate recent symptoms, but also detect and effectively prevent osteoporosis, Alzheimer's disease, atherosclerosis and other senile diseases.
We can alleviate the discomfort caused by "menopause" in the following ways.
1. Hospital physical examination
Although based on the history and clinical manifestations, it is not difficult for doctors to make a diagnosis of "menopausal syndrome".
However, doctors still need to pass some tests to help you rule out organic lesions and mental illnesses with related symptoms.
After all, perimenopause + abnormal vaginal bleeding is also the "standard" for many gynecological tumors.
2. Improve lifestyle
While there is currently no safe and effective way to delay menopause, building a healthy lifestyle can lead to a better quality of life during menopause and reduce the long-term effects of menopause.
This includes exercising, maintaining an optimistic mindset, eating a healthy diet, increasing sun exposure, consuming enough protein and calcium-rich foods to prevent osteoporosis, and if necessary, the right amount of sedatives to aid sleep.
3. Hormone supplementation therapy
Don't rush to refuse to hear the hormone, this "hormone" is the "estrogen and progesterone" that menopausal women just lack.
National guidelines generally agree that hormone replacement therapy is effective in relieving menopausal-related symptoms, is used in the early stages of menopause, and can also go some way toward preventing the onset of chronic diseases in old age, such as osteoporosis [4,5].
However, it is not recommended to buy estrogen to eat, especially health supplements containing estrogen.
Due to individual differences, the applicable population, usage and dosage of estrogen and progesterone must be evaluated by a professional doctor, and once it starts, do not stop the drug without authorization!
The pressure on women in "menopause" comes not only from uncontrollable bodies and family relationships, but also from the prejudice and stigmatization of social opinion.
Some people ignore it, some people complain about it, some people spit on it, some people curse it.
On one online platform, there is a group called "Moms Are Menopausal", which brings together 3201 "Menopausal Moms Vent objects".
Menopausal mothers have a lot of symptoms, both physically and psychologically.
Because of the shame, many women, although they have a lot of discomfort, still choose to endure alone and are unwilling to go to the hospital.
We hope that you who read this article can dispel the misunderstanding of menopause and promptly encourage moms and themselves to seek help from professional doctors.
Queuing up in the hospital to watch menopause is a very normal phenomenon, and there is nothing to worry about.
Reviewer
Liu Haiphong | Deputy Chief Physician of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University
bibliography
[1] Yang D, Haines CJ, Pan P, et al. Menopausal symptoms in mid-life women in southern China. Climacteric. Aug 2008;11(4):329-36. doi:10.1080/13697130802239075
Xie Xing, Kong Beihua, Duan Tao. Obstetrics and Gynecology Ninth Edition. People's Medical Publishing House; 2018.
[3] Wang X, Wang L, Di J, Zhang X, Zhao G. Prevalence and risk factors for menopausal symptoms in middle-aged Chinese women: a community-based cross-sectional study. Menopause. Aug 30 2021;28(11):1271-1278. doi:10.1097/GME.0000000000001850
Xie Meiqing, Chen Rong, Ren Mulan. Guidelines for menopause management and menopausal hormone therapy in China (2018)[J]. Concord Medical Journal, 2018, 9(06):38-51.
[5] Stepan JJ, Hruskova H, Kverka M. Update on Menopausal Hormone Therapy for Fracture Prevention. Curr Osteoporos Rep. Dec 2019;17(6):465-473. doi:10.1007/s11914-019-00549-3
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