Menopause hormones often do not cause the symptoms
Menopausal symptoms are not caused by falling hormone levels
03/28/2015
The falling hormone level was previously considered the main cause of physical and mental discomfort in menopausal women. But researchers at the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Dresden have now found that most of the symptoms associated with the menopause are not caused by the hormonal changes.
In many cases, menopausal women are prescribed hormone therapy to relieve physical and mental discomfort. The research team headed by Prof. Kerstin Weidner, director of the Clinic and Polyclinic for Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics at the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Dresden, found in his current study, however, only in hot flashes a typical relationship with the hormonal changes before and after the menopause. The use of hormone therapies must be given the findings „more critical and individualized“ be designed, says Weidner and colleagues. In addition, it is wrong to generalize the menopause as a disease. A detailed presentation of the results by Prof. Weidner is carried out according to the announcement of the University Hospital at the German Congress for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy in Berlin.
Menopausal symptoms previously explained by falling hormone levels
The researchers led by Prof. Kerstin Weidner in their extensive study, the question of how the symptoms during menopause are actually due to the hormonal changes before and after the menopause. The list of complaints related to menopause is sufficient „from hot flashes, muscle and joint pains to sleep disturbances, mood swings, fearfulness and forgetfulness to the vagina's dryness and to the loss of sexual desire“, reports the university hospital. Many women here hope for medical support. Since the symptoms are explained so far with the drop in estrogen levels, they often receive hormone therapy, „but which can lead to unwanted side effects - such as a higher risk of breast cancer“, explains Prof. Kerstin Weidner.
Generally increasing complaints with age
As part of their study, the researchers at the University of Dresden in 2014 surveyed around 1,400 women between the ages of 14 to 95 years and about 1,200 men. The results of the survey make it clear that the physical symptoms of both women and men are increasing with age, according to the University Hospital. Only hot flashes and sweats were found to be typical for menopausal women. The increasing vaginal dryness from the age of 60 is also to be understood as a normal aging process.
No increased mental problems detectable
The psychological symptoms such as depression, irritability, anxiety or fatigue, according to the researchers revealed that no age-typical relationships. Rather be for the „mental health, education, income, partnership and employment, as well as the belief that you can shape your own personal situation.“ The menopause can therefore not be evaluated as an occasion for increased mental health problems. Also be „a general interpretation of this stage of life as pathological and a premature attribution of symptoms according to the results of the study is not tenable“, says Prof. Weidner. Of the interviewees between the ages of 45 and 59, about half even stated that they did not suffer from any symptoms, reports the University Hospital.
Critically evaluate the use of hormone therapy
The treatment of menopausal women with hormone therapy is increasingly critically evaluated in the professional world due to the possible side effects and in view of the current study results Prof. Weidner called for clear boundaries. „Only with severe impairments, against which behavioral changes do not help - for example wearing shifts in hot flashes - is a temporary hormone therapy justified“, so the study director. Ultimately, menopause is a psychosomatic sensation of a typical threshold situation with physical, psychological and social changes and the need for individualized therapy. (Fp)