How Progesteril Prevent Menopause Symptoms?

Today am going to base my post on a study that gives some not so good news. According to a study led by Nancy Avis, a professor in health policy and social sciences at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, US, women experiencing menopause may have the uncomfortable symptoms for as long as 14 years!

The research that was conducted on what is described as a "large sample size" suggest that half of the women in the study experience the distressing symptoms - the hot flushes and sleep problems - for more than 7 years on average.

This is very disheartening and I feel that a lot needs to be done to find new ways to help women at the menopause stage of life. Most of the ways available today are either ineffective or very expensive. We, women, are not well educated on the vasomotor symptoms - night sweats and hot flushes. We are not aware that these symptoms may last longer than we normally anticipate. Doctor Nancy says, "The 7 years duration spotlights the limitations of the usual guidance advocating short-term hormonal therapy and stresses the need to identify a safer long-term therapy for vasomotor symptoms."

Crunching the numbers
The study involved a sample size of 1,499 women (described by stakeholders as the largest study of its kind) who said they have frequent night sweating and hot flushes. The sample size was taken from four different ethnic groups - we are not going to stereotype today. According to Nancy, the average time women endured was 7 years and 3 months. Although have of the women experienced the undesirable symptoms for less than the 7 years, the other half had the symptoms for double this time.

Time to stereotype� on average, African-American and Hispanic women experienced the vasomotor symptoms for a longer period than whites and Asian. Is genetics in play here? Let's wait for the scientists to decide.

Another interesting find is that the hot flushes that started earlier lasted longer� I know pity women who experience early menopause (typically, having menopause before the age of 40). Those who got their menopause later, experienced shorter symptoms.

Again, women who started having the symptoms before their periods stopped were more likely to have the hot flushes years after the menopause as compared to women who started getting hot flushes after the periods stopped. In the study, an eight of the women began having the vasomotor symptoms while still having their regular periods. On the other hand, majority of the women began experiencing the hot flushes in perimenopause stage (this is the time period when the periods become scant but menopause has not fully set in).

I am not willing to continue discussing the study. So far, I have learnt something: a lot of women out there are suffering from undesirable symptoms of menopause. What is more sickening is that we have not empowered women well enough for them to deal with menopause. I can't imagine the quality of life someone who has had hot flushes for 7 years or more has.

Today I will review a product known as Progesteril menopause cream. You are wondering what makes it a menopause cream? What does Progesteril do? If you are going through menopause, I am sure you have established that menopause goes deeper than just missing your monthly periods. Menopause is characterized by hormonal imbalances that affect the quality of life of most women due to the undesirable side effects. Starting from low libido to psychological side effects that affect both physical and mental well-being.

But is this the end? Is there hope? For starters, menopause is permanent. Once your body stops producing the female hormones (or there's a significant decrease in the hormonal levels) you cannot reverse the change; but you can mitigate the harmful effects of the change. It is widely thought that you should learn to live with menopause. Well, that not true! Progesteril is an easy-to-use all-natural topical cream created using plant-based progesterone and oestrogen that ensures your hormonal levels are back to an optimum level and thus mitigates the troublesome menopause symptoms!

This doesn't mean that you get your periods or fertility back. No. it means that you will not be affected with most of the side effects of menopause; like night sweating, hot flushes, loss of mood, tiredness, reduced libido etc. the topical cream (by the way it is real kind on your clothes. It will not smear or stick on them) will ensure that you get your stress free life back (painless sex, uninterrupted sleep etc.). Progesteril costs as low as $39.99 from the official website (check shipping costs).

Many women don't realize painful sex is common, treatable condition

Many women suffer from dyspareunia, or painful intercourse, but they may not realize the condition has a name and more importantly treatments.

Women "often feel like it's their fault," Dr. Lynne T. Schuster, a physician at Mayo Clinic's Women's Health Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said to CBSNews.com. "There could be so much less suffering."

Dyspareunia -- which can occur just before, during or after intercourse -- can be caused by many physical and psychological conditions. Schuster estimates that the condition is so pervasive that at least 40 percent of all women will experience it in their lifetime.

For many women of all ages, vulvodynia may the culprit for their condition. Women with vulvodynia experience chronic burning or irritation at the opening or inside of the vagina. This could be caused by involuntary contractions of the vaginal muscles. Yeast infections or pelvic inflammatory disease can lead to painful sex as well.

Women who have just given birth may also experience dyspareunia, and may need more time to heal.

Another cause could be menopause. Older women going through menopause often experience painful sex because of lower levels of estrogen. Lower amounts of the hormone lead to vaginal and genital tissue getting thinner.

Actress Virginia Madsen ("Sideways," "The Number 23") became interested in speaking out about dyspareunia after she realized there not a lot of information out there about menopause and its related conditions. She has partnered with the pharmaceutical company Shionogi Inc's Finding the Words campaign to help educate women about dyspareunia and other conditions. Shionogi Inc. manufactures Osphena, a treatment for post-menopausal dyspareunia.

"I think what surprised me mostly, honestly, is that so many women were silent about it," she said." I just found that in this day and age that was really surprising. When you look at the way we relate to our doctors as women, a lot of women just don't -- they just go in and out. Some women don't even get their annual (check-up)."

"Sometimes women will say they don't want to seem like they are complaining," she added. "They'll downplay symptoms so they can just get on with things and concentrate on everybody else except them."

Dr. Jennifer Wu, an OB/GYN at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, pointed out that many women will go see their doctor if they start experiencing pain during sex that they didn't feel before.  But many other women who are going through menopause may think it's just a normal side effect and not seek help.

"They might be more reluctant to talk to it from a generational perspective," Wu said. "Older women are just shy about talking about painful sex."

One concern Wu has is that many post-menopausal women may stop having sex for a few months, or entirely, once they start feeling pain. This will only exacerbate the condition, she said. Wu pointed out doctors can recommend non-invasive treatments like lubricants, moisturizers and hormonal creams that can help these women if they just bring up the issue.

For some women, it may be as simple as teaching them how to relax their pelvic floor muscles, said Dr. Schuster of the Mayo Clinic. She encourages women to go see a specialist if they feel they might have the condition.

Madsen understands that it might be uncomfortable for some women to talk about their condition. She suggested looking up information on dyspareunia and taking notes, help women can feel more comfortable asking their doctors questions. If going to a doctor is too daunting, she suggested talking to a female friend or partner.

There's no shame in telling your partner about your condition, said Madsen.

"There's a lot of women who had symptoms of this for years, and they haven't talked to their partner," she explained. "And they don't know what's going on either, and you can imagine what effect that would have on a relationship."

For more information on dyspareunia, visit the Mayo Clinic's website.
Source: cbsnews.com

Hysterectomy and Menopause By Dr. Jacqueline Gerhart

Madison, Wisconsin - UW Health Family Medicine physician Jacqueline Gerhart writes a column that appears weekly on madison.com and in the Wisconsin State Journal. Columns are re-published here with permission.

UW Health Family Medicine physician Dr. Jacqueline GerhartDear Dr. Gerhart: I think I'm going through menopause because I have hot flashes. But I'm not sure because I've had a hysterectomy. How do I know?

Dear Reader: Menopause is defined as the loss of your period (or absence of menstruation) for 12 months. Since you have had your uterus removed, you no longer have periods. So you can't use that as a guide to when you are going through menopause. Because of this, you need to look for other signs and symptoms associated with menopause, and sometimes may need further testing to rule out other disorders.

Almost on a daily basis I have patients come in to ask me about testing for menopause. Usually, they ask me to test their hormone levels in hopes of determining if they are menopausal, and "how far into menopause" they are. Unfortunately, hormone testing won't be able to tell you that.

Menopause is a clinical diagnosis, meaning we define it based on your age, your symptoms and the absence of other disorders. Lab tests for "female hormones" such as estrogen and progesterone vary throughout the month.

In other words, if you are still having a period or if you are still ovulating (releasing an egg each month), every single day will result in a different hormone level, depending on where you are in your cycle. So the range for your hormone tests varies widely to include all parts of your cycle.

The "precursor" hormones to estrogen and progesterone are LH and FSH. These are other hormones that patients often ask to be tested. Unfortunately, these also vary depending on the time of your cycle. They only reach a more "steady state" once you have gone through menopause. So we can't accurately tell where you are in the process of menopause using simple blood tests.

Women usually go through menopause in their 40s and 50s. The average age of menopause (or the cessation of periods) is 51. Usually, women will start having irregular periods (like one every two to four months) about one or two years before "official menopause." Other "pre-menopause" or "peri-menopause" symptoms are vaginal dryness, mood changes, weight gain, slowed metabolism, night sweats and hot flashes.

A hysterectomy that removes your uterus but not your ovaries doesn't cause menopause at the time of surgery. This is because your ovaries still release eggs and produce estrogen and progesterone. But a surgery that removes your ovaries will cause menopause right after surgery. Your periods will stop immediately and you likely will have hot flashes and possibly severe menopause symptoms, since these changes occur abruptly rather than over time.

Also, about 1 percent of women will experience "premature menopause" before age 40 due to "primary ovarian insufficiency," which is when the ovaries stop producing the normal levels of reproductive hormones. For these women, we may recommend hormone treatment until the natural age of menopause to help protect them from heart or bone disease.

For information on non-hormonal ways to manage menopause, check out this UW Integrative Medicine patient handout: Supplements for Hot Flashes during Menopause (pdf)

Source: healthcanal.com

How Men's Choice Of Mates May Have Led To Menopause?

A dapper older gentleman spurns his mate of a certain age to take a fresh-faced young lover. You've seen that movie before, right?

Well, this choice of youth may turn out to be more than a Hollywood trope. Researchers say decisions like that one may have been the evolutionary source of menopause.

While conventional wisdom says that men prefer younger women because they're fertile, a recent report in PLOS Computational Biology suggests that it's precisely this preference for younger mates that caused older women to become infertile in the first place.

Computational biologist Jonathon Stone of McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, spoke with Shots about the mathematical model he and some colleagues used to come up with that hypothesis.

First, for the sake of computation, they assumed that women have infinite capacity for both fertility and survival. Then, they slowly introduced common genetic mutations into the math mix and observed how those changes led women to become infertile and eventually die.

They were able to tweak the model to account for age preferences between mates. When they changed the program to allow men and women of all ages to mate, the data consistently showed that women's survival and fertility plummeted simultaneously.

It was only after they used mathematical trickery to adjust their program to skew toward a preference of men for younger women that the data showed a 20-year loss of fertility before death in older women.

The phenomenon of having several decades without fertility at the end of a woman's life is unique to humans. This period of life begins at menopause, and its origins have been confusing to researchers for years.

Until recently, evolutionary biologists had widely accepted the grandmother hypothesis, the idea that menopause evolved as a way for women to focus their energies on the youngest in the clan. "This idea," Stone says, "frees up daughters to have more offspring, an evolutionary advantage, since this increases the number of offspring twofold."

University of Utah anthropologist Kristen Hawkes, who wasn't involved in the mathematical research, says she has her money on the grandmother hypothesis. Hawkes, whose work deals with the evolutionary origins of menopause, points out that great apes, with whom we share a great deal of evolutionary history, exhibit a similar pattern of losing fertility in their mid-40s.

The difference is that while the apes' fertility rates seem to be in sync with those of humans, their longevity rates aren't. "They usually die before they get to those post-fertile years," she says. "They get to be old ladies, gray and frail, while they're still cycling."

But Hawkes acknowledges the human male's apparent difference in taste. "I agree the preference men have for young partners is a striking contrast with other primates especially since it is well-documented that chimpanzee males prefer older females," she says.

Stone says that the model also shows that the outcome could be reversed. "If we begin by assuming that all women are choosing to mate with younger men, male menopause will be the eventual evolutionary outcome." In fact, members of his team are currently testing this prediction in fruit flies, which reproduce rapidly enough to track evolutionary changes in next to no time.

What does this mean for us? Assuming this model is correct, if older women begin to eschew paunchy, balding partners in favor of younger mates, male menopause could become a reality in a few thousand years.

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Men Are To Blame For Menopause

A team of evolutionary geneticists have determined what really caused menopause in women: men. It was previously thought that women evolved to become infertile after a certain age so that they could care for their grandchildren and coddle the next of kin. But evolutionarily speaking, that turned out to be a load of crap because, according to the laws of natural selection, our fertility should continue for as long as possible to keep the species going.

The new working theory is that men and their preference for young mates is what caused us to evolve to become infertile after a certain age. Researchers think that over time, men�s competition for young women made older women�s reproductive organs feel unappreciated therefore causing them to crawl under the bed and die, so to speak.

�If women were reproducing all along, and there were no preference against older women, women would be reproducing like men are for their whole lives,� said Rama Singh, the biologist leading the study.

Singh also points out that if women had been the ones to historically chase after younger dudes, the whole phenomenon would have been reversed and it would be the men going through menopause, or spermopause or whatever. The upside of these findings is that we can take our fertility back over time, end those hot flashes and mood swings and general insanity by regularly competing for younger men. Cougardom finally makes so much sense. [Phys.org]

55% women have hot flashes or night sweats before menopause

Washington: A new study has revealed that more than half of middle-aged women who still have regular cycles have hot flashes.

According to a survey of some 1,500 women, Asian and Hispanic women are less likely to have them than white women, but compared with previous studies, the figures are surprisingly high.

The survey, conducted by researchers at Group Health (a large healthcare system in the Pacific Northwest) and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington, consisted of a diverse group of women, including whites, blacks, Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders, women of mixed ethnicity, Vietnamese, Filipinos, Japanese, East Indians, Chinese, and other Asians.

The women were 45 to 56 years old, had regular cycles, had not skipped periods, and were not taking hormones.

A surprising 55 percent of them reported having hot flashes or night sweats. (Previous studies pegged the highest rates at below 50 percent.)

The groups with the highest proportions reporting hot flashes or night sweats were Native Americans (67 percent) and black (61 percent) women, but the differences between these groups and white women weren`t statistically significant.

58 percent of white women, the largest ethnic group, reported having hot flashes or night sweats.

Compared with them, Asian and Hispanic women were significantly less likely to have these symptoms. Among Asian women, 31 percent of Filipino, 26 percent of Japanese, 25 percent of East Indian, 23 percent of "other Asian," and 18 percent of Chinese women reported having hot flashes or night sweats. 26 percent of Hispanic women reported these symptoms.

Interestingly, white women who had symptoms were more likely to include soy in their diet, and white women who never had symptoms were more likely to have no soy in their diet.

The research is published online in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS).

Improved Sex for Couples after Menopause: Here's the Secret

According to a recent study published in the journal Menopause, many women and their sex partners suffer needlessly from a lack of sex following menopause. The chief reason behind this lack of sex is due to a condition called �vulvovaginal atrophy� (VVA)--the drying and thinning of vaginal tissue resulting from hormonal changes initiated by menopause. However, before menopause, hormonal changes do just the opposite and make women more sexually receptive.

Vulvovaginal atrophy is a well-studied medical condition that is typically remedied in some cases with hormone replacement therapy (HRT), but more often with vaginal lubricants and moisturizers. In some cases women also use a female Viagra pill to increase blood flow to their vaginal tissue. Loss of feelings of intimacy and loss of libido are typically associated with discomfort or pain during sex due to the vulvovaginal atrophy.

However, what is less studied is the emotional and physical impact of vaginal atrophy on postmenopausal women and their male sex partners�a quality of life issue that may adversely affect many marriages as well as feelings of esteem and self-worth.

In the study, researchers commissioned by Novo Nordisk--the maker of a vaginal estrogen products--created a survey titled �Clarifying Vaginal Atrophy's Impact on Sex and Relationships� (CLOSER). The goal of the survey was to gather information from both postmenopausal women and their sex partners about how they personally felt vaginal atrophy affected their sex lives and whether or not they found improvement following the use of a vaginal estrogen treatment.

The study participants consisted of 1,000 married or cohabiting North American postmenopausal women aged 55 to 65 years and 1,000 male partners of postmenopausal women aged 55 to 65 years. The participants completed questionnaires about their sex lives both before and after the female participants underwent vaginal estrogen treatment.

Before Vaginal Estrogen Treatment

For the women what the study showed was that:
� 58% of the women attributed vaginal discomfort to their avoidance of intimacy with their partners.
� 64% reported experiencing a loss of libido.
� 64% reported experiencing pain associated with sex.

For the men what the study showed was that:

� 78% believed that vaginal discomfort caused their partners to avoid intimacy.
� 52% believed that vaginal discomfort accounted for loss of libido
� 59% believed that their partner found sex painful

After Vaginal Estrogen Treatment

� 56% of the female participants who used local estrogen therapy to treat their vaginal discomfort reported less pain, more satisfying sex (41%), and an improved sex life (29%).

� 57% of the male participants reported looking forward to having sex because of their partner's use of local estrogen therapy.

The authors of the study concluded that the use of vaginal estrogen therapy improves the sex lives of postmenopausal women and their male sex partners, and that education and awareness efforts about the symptoms of and available treatments for vaginal atrophy will benefit many couples seeking an improved sex life.

Image Source: Courtesy of PhotoBucket

Reference: �Clarifying Vaginal Atrophy's Impact on Sex and Relationships (CLOSER) survey: emotional and physical impact of vaginal discomfort on North American postmenopausal women and their partners� Menopause Published Ahead-of-Print 3 June, 2013; Simon, James A. MD, CCD, NCMP, FACOG; Nappi, Rossella E. MD, PhD; Kingsberg, Sheryl A. PhD; Maamari, Ricardo MD, NCMP; Brown, Vivien MD, CM, CCFP, FCFP, NCMP.

Treatment helps sex stage a comeback after menopause

A satisfying sex life is an important contributor to older adults' quality of life, but the sexual pain that can come after menopause can rob women and their partners of that satisfaction. Treatment can help restore it, shows a global survey including some 1,000 middle-aged North American men and women, published online today in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS).



Sexual pain at this stage in a woman's life is usually the result of the typical drying and thinning of tissues in and around the vagina after menopause, called vulvovaginal atrophy (VVA), coupled with a decrease in sexual activity. Vaginal lubricants and moisturizers, vaginal estrogen, and ospemifene, a recently approved oral drug that is a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM), can all be used to treat it.

Known as Clarifying Vaginal Atrophy's Impact on Sex and Relationships (CLOSER), the survey was commissioned by Novo Nordisk, the maker of a vaginal estrogen treatment. It included postmenopausal women volunteers age 55 to 65 who had VVA and their male partners. This part of CLOSER looked at how treatment with vaginal estrogen affected their sex lives.

Before treatment, a majority of these women (58%) said they had been avoiding intimacy because of the pain, and 68% said they had lost their desire because of it. An even higher percentage of the men (78%) thought their partner's vaginal discomfort caused them to avoid intimacy. About a third of the men and women had stopped having sex altogether.

After treatment, a majority of women and men reported sex was less painful for them and their partner, and more than 40% of the women and men said sex was more satisfying. Twenty-nine percent of the women and 34% of the men said their sex life had improved. Treatment also had a positive impact on the women's self esteem. About a third felt more optimistic about the future of their sex life, and a similar number felt more connected to their partners.

"There is no need for a woman's quality of life to decline because of VVA," said NAMS Executive Director Margery L.S. Gass, MD.

Many women get relief with vaginal lubricants and moisturizers and regular sexual activity or the use of vaginal dilators. Vaginal estrogen, in the form of creams, tablets, or rings, is a common therapy and is appealing for women who cannot or choose not to take oral hormones, since absorption into the bloodstream is minimal. Women who have had breast or uterine cancer are encouraged to discuss the pros and cons of different treatments with their oncologist. The SERM offers an alternative for women who choose not to use any oral or vaginal hormone therapy.

More information: The article, "Clarifying Vaginal Atrophy's Impact on Sex and Relationships (CLOSER) survey: emotional and physical impact of vaginal discomfort on North American postmenopausal women and their partners," will be published in the February 2014 print edition of Menopause.

Journal reference: Menopause 

Provided by The North American Menopause Society

Menopause foggy brain study: Emotions affect foggy brain, hot flashes, sleep

The menopause foggy brain study conducted by researchers found that a menopause foggy brain, hot flashes, and mood swings are connected. To deal with the symptoms of the menopause foggy brain and other menopause symptoms, researchers suggest quality sleep, to address emotional problems such as anxiety or depression, and to use little tricks to support a menopause foggy brain such as writing down lists or things to do, reported Yahoo! News on May 27, 2013.

"Memory problems are a common complaint of women going through menopause, and now a new study provides more evidence linking mood and hot flashes to loss of memory abilities during menopause."

The menopause foggy brain study which was published online in the journal Menopause included 68 women, ages 44 to 62, who experienced moderate to severe hot flashes.

During the menopause foggy brain study, the women were given eight tests of attention and memory and women completed questionnaires about their menopause symptoms, mood, and memory.

By conducting the menopause foggy brain study, researchers were able to show from the series of psychological tests of attention and memory that women experienced lower memory abilities when feeling more negative and that the memory abilities, hot flashes, and mood swings were linked by a woman's emotions.

"Women who reported more negative emotions did worse on the tests than women who had felt less negative. Similarly, women who experienced severe hot flashes did worse on the tests, compared to women who had fewer hot flashes."

While many women might feel helpless when they experience a foggy brain, memory problems, hot flashes, or mood swings, the new research study highlights the importance of negative or positive feelings about oneself during menopause and how they affect a foggy brain and other menopause symptoms.

Each foggy brain occurrence, each sleep problem, each hot flash, or each emotional outburst is sending a clear message to a woman � it is time to treat yourself royally.

While much of a woman's life is dedicated to everyone else and making everyone else feel good, menopause is an excellent time to learn to dedicate one's energy on oneself.

As such, menopause is a time of empowerment for women.

Source: examiner.com

Menopause can cause memory loss during hot flashes

Don't doubt it when a woman harried by hot flashes says she's having a hard time remembering things. A new study published online in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS), helps confirm with objective tests that what these women say about their memory is true.

In the past, some studies showed that hot flashes were related to memory problems, and some didn't. Other studies showed that, even though there was a relationship between hot flashes and what women said about memory problems, objective tests didn't confirm it.

That's why researchers from the University of Illinois and Northwestern University in Chicago gave a battery of eight tests of attention and recall to 68 women age 44 to 62 who had at least 35 hot flashes a week. The women also completed questionnaires about their menopause symptoms, mood, and memory. Women who said they had trouble with memory really did. Also, those who had more trouble with hot flashes did worse on the tests, and women with more hot flashes struggled longer with memory problems than women who had fewer hot flashes. In addition, women who reported more negative emotions did worse on the tests than women who had fewer.

Source: The North American Menopause Society (NAMS)

Doctor: Menopause memory loss "is real'

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Do insomnia and disrupted sleep during menopause increase a woman's risk of heart disease?

New Rochelle, NY, May 9, 2013�Insomnia and other sleep disturbances are common among perimenopausal and postmenopausal women and may increase their risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Evidence that a combination of altered sleep duration and insomnia among women ages 50-79 doubled their risk of both CHD and CVD over a period of more than 10 years is presented in an article in Journal of Women's Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of Women's Health website at http://www.liebertpub.com/jwh.

In "Sleep Duration, Insomnia, and Coronary Heart Disease among Postmenopausal Women in the Women's Health Initiative," Megan Sands-Lincoln, PhD, MPH and a team of researchers from leading medical institutions across the U.S. gathered self-reported data on sleep duration and insomnia in 86,329 women 50-79 years of age. Shorter (<5 hours) and longer (>10 hours) sleep duration and insomnia were associated with higher incidence of CHD and CVD over 10.3 years, and when considered together, the interaction risk of insomnia and sleep duration was significant.

 

Journal of Women's Health, published monthly, is a core multidisciplinary journal dedicated to the diseases and conditions that hold greater risk for or are more prevalent among women, as well as diseases that present differently in women.

(Photo Credit: �2013 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers)

"This is the first study to investigate interactions of sleep duration with insomnia in relation to increased risk of CHD and CVD in postmenopausal women," says Susan G. Kornstein, MD, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Women's Health, Executive Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women's Health, Richmond, VA, and President of the Academy of Women's Health.

Source: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News