As Prescribed: How to avoid suffering through menopause

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – “It happens during the day. It happens in the boardroom. It happens at work. And it’s incredibly distressing,” said Dr. Tami Rowen , an obstetrician and gynecologist at UCSF Health. She was talking about hot flashes, a common menopause symptom.

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You may not realize it, but your coworkers, relatives, or friends might be dealing with these and other menopause symptoms. More than 2 million people in the U.S. reach menopause every year, per the Mayo Clinic .

On this week’s edition of “As Prescribed” from KCBS Radio, Rowen joined the show to discuss ways to make the transition into menopause more comfortable.

She explained that menopause is defined as one year without a menstrual period. This may sound simple, but it isn’t a change that happens in one day. It’s a gradual decrease in eggs stored in the ovaries and along with that a decrease in estrogen and testosterone.

While many people are aware that hot flashes come with menopause, they might not be aware of other symptoms associated with it.

“Other symptoms that happen that people may not realize are menopausal changes are a dry skin that definitely happens more, further along towards the one year without a period and beyond… dry skin, joint pain, dry mucous membranes,” Rowen explained . Insomnia is another menopause symptom.

For most people, hormone therapy is a good option for dealing with menopause symptoms, she said, though it may not be the best option for some people – including people with certain hormone-sensitive cancers. Typically, estrogen therapy is the first hormone therapy medical professionals suggest and it can be taken either as a pill orally; through the skin either as a patch, a cream, a gel, a spray or through a vaginal ring.

“Anybody with a uterus who takes estrogen therapy needs to take progesterone, because the one big risk of estrogen is that it can overstimulate the lining of the uterus,” Rowen warned. “And so we give progesterone one of the benefits of progesterone, especially if it’s the natural progesterone we oftentimes prescribe, is that it actually really can help with sleep.”

Apart from hormone therapy, Rowen said regular exercise and cognitive behavioral therapy are good ways to deal with menopause symptoms. In some cases, low doses of antidepressants can also help with certain symptoms.

Listen to this week’s “As Prescribed” to learn more. You can also listen to last week’s episode about how treating childhood trauma could improve adulthood disease here .

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“As Prescribed” is sponsored by UCSF.