Know more about Menopause

Symptoms and preventions for Menopause

Hi Good morning! I am doctor Aparna Jain, senior consultant obstetrics and gynaecology. Today we are discussing problems related to menopause. Average age of menopause in an average Indian woman is 48 years. 2/3 years beyond that and before that is the period of perimenopause. Lot of women suffer from problems related to menopause first of which is hot flashes, another is urinary problem and sometimes menstrual disorder. Then there can be joint pains as well.

1. Hot Flashes. In hot flashes women usually feel lot of sweating and nervousness. Deficiency of hormones lead to hot flashes, for that we need to supplement the woman with hormones and usually we ask to avoid taking hot drinks and advice to take natural isoflavones to avoid hot flashes.

2. Menstrual Disorder. Menstrual disorder usually happens in the form of either irregular periods or heavy menses and irregular period usually occur in the initial six months to one year time then the period usually stops. If the period continues to be irregular then we need to do investigation to find out whether this woman is having any benign disorder in the uterus or malignant disorder in uterus. For that we need to do an ultrasound of lower abdomen and if required a D&C Hysteroscopy to find out whether there is any growth inside the uterus and we send this tissue for histopathology to rule out malignancy. If the bleeding till persists then the woman may need hysterectomy in that age.

3. Urinary Problem. It is quite common. Usually women do not come out with this problem because they feel shy about disclosing it. The most common problems are either frequency or dysuria which means burning during urination. Another is stress incontinence. Whenever they sneeze or cough they pass small amount of urine. It is all because of hormonal deficiency. Because of which the lining of the urinary bladder as well as the lining of the vagina becomes thin so there is chances of recurrent infection and women suffer from this problem. For this we need to supplement the women with hormones as well as ask them to take natural sources of oestrogens like soya isoflavones.

4. Joint Pain. Usually this is because of the deficiency of Vitamin D and Calcium. For this we need to address and tell them to do lot of exercises and to take Calcium as well as Vitamin D
Usually we subject every woman with health package during menopausal period in which we include a pap smear, and ultrasound routine, blood test like CBC, blood count, as well as lipid profile and kidney function test, sugar, urine routine culture, ultrasound of lower abdomen and if required mammography and if we find any problem one can go for a cardiac check up also. And, usually we tell every post menopausal woman to do some amount of exercise and take calcium and vitamin d and plenty of liquids to avoid any problem related to postmenopausal.

Thank you very much. If you have any problem related to this you can consult me either on Lybrate or you can come down to my clinic.