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Women in the 30s and beyond begin to face new challenges to their health, as physical changes to their bodies take place with age. Menopause is a natural occurrence but begins a major physical transition for women.
“It’s not possible to predict, however, when an individual women will go into menopause,” says Julia Edelman, M.D. a gynecologist and certified menopause clinician and the author of Menopause Matters. “There’s no test for that.” Dr. Edelman shared her expertise and offered advice on Women’s Health, the May edition of the Massachusetts Medical Society’s Physician Focus television program, hosted by primary care physician Mavis
Jaworski, M.D.
Family history and lifestyles issues play key roles in when a woman will experience menopause, says Dr. Edelman. Part of the confusion among patients, she says, is that many women do not make the distinction between the two phases of menopause. Perimenopause signals the transition to menopause and may take anywhere from three to ten years. Post menopause is actually realized after 12 consecutive months without a menstrual period. At that point, the woman will be post menopausal for the rest of her life.
Dr. Edelman notes that some women will experience missed periods. Among those are active women such as athletes, women with low estrogen levels, those who experience rapid weight changes or high stress levels, and perhaps those with thyroid disease.
Women would be wise, she said, to check for thyroid conditions, which can cause hot flashes, disturbed sleep, and even loss of hair, besides missed periods.
Women in their 30s will begin to see changes in their menstrual cycles, a decrease in muscle mass, and an increase in body fat, especially those with a sedentary lifestyle, not uncommon in our society today. In their 30s and 40s, women experience a slowing metabolism, accumulation of more body fat, and more irregular periods.
The biggest problems facing women in this age bracket are irregular periods and hot flashes or night sweats. Irregular periods are a natural function of the body slowing down with age, but hot flashes or night sweats are somewhat of a mystery.
“We don’t know exactly what causes hot flashes or night sweats,” says Dr. Edelman, “but we do know they have common triggers, such as caffeine, alcohol, stress, and warm rooms. It is a biological phenomenon, with a physical rise in body temperature.” Dr. Edelman’s suggested remedies for these conditions are using fans, dressing in layers, lowering room temperatures, and deep breathing exercises, the last of which can lower body temperature about 80 percent. Some non-hormonal medications
may also help.
When women pass the age of 50, the two biggest problems become heart disease and bone thinning. “Fifty percent of women 50 and older,” says Dr. Edelman, “die of heart disease. It is more difficult to diagnose in women than in men, because women do not have the classic heart symptoms that men do.” As preventive efforts, women should maintain a healthy weight, engage in weight-bearing exercises, eat a good diet, maintain good blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and lower their stress, all of which can help prevent problems.
Other topics addressed by Dr. Edelman and Dr. Jaworski in this edition of Physician Focus include the effects of aging on skin, hair, and memory, as well as the effects of different kinds of contraception.
Dr. Edelman leaves the audience with some important advice. “Women should update their family history every year,” she says, “and be open to new developments as far as preventive strategies that they might use to continue to be healthy in their remaining decades.”
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MMS/Richard Gulla
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