HRT stands for Hormone Replacement Therapy. The diagnosis does not need any confirmatory blood tests. While blood tests are often taken during a menopause visit, they will be looking more for other causes of symptoms (thyroid hormone, iron levels, etc) and not reproductive hormones. The worst of the symptoms usually tail off by the late 50’s but some women continue to have troubles well into their 60’s and beyond. It is clearly no picnic and some ladies suffer much worse than others. The elasticity of the vaginal wall usually disimproves as time goes on and that can make things like exercise and having sex less comfortable for some women. Skin, hair and nail quality declines as collagen levels drop even further. As some women move deeper into the transition issues to do with declining collagen levels arise, so weakness of the pelvic floor with incontinence can worsen.
Some women are more troubled by emotional and cognitive issues like low mood, poor sex drive, irritability or anxiety, poor memory and/or a cloudiness in their thinking. In the main, early symptoms include flushes, night sweats and sleep disturbance. Menopause symptoms are so varied and there are no blood tests that confirm the diagnosis, so it can be a tricky consultation. It might be helpful to know where all this furore came from! First things first: how do you know you’re in the menopause? In recent years there has been a lot of anxiety over the use of HRT and how it might affect the development of breast cancer but most of that information was not presented in an accurate way and caused enormous, unnecessary fear. The most efficient way to combat disruptive symptoms brought on by menopausal hormonal fluctuations/ decline is to supplement levels with hormone replacement therapy or HRT. Sleep disruption particularly can be devastating and will affect all aspects of wellbeing. Other women are fortunate and don’t experience too much disruption during this time but for some it can be an awful process. Some women start to feel the beginning of this transition with symptoms such as hot flushes, sweating (especially at night), poor sleep, mood changes and more. During this time, our bodies transition from producing large amounts of reproductive hormone to almost none.
The Menopause is officially defined as the last day of your last menstrual period, but most people use the word “menopause” when they talk about the symptoms that can occur in the months or years when a woman’s fertility is winding down.
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