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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/mar/05/companies-portray-menopause-as-medical-problem-and-push-women-towards-ineffective-treatments-papers-find>
"Many companies have a commercial interest in portraying menopause as a
“medical problem”, leaving women inundated with misinformation and pushed
towards ineffective treatments, a series of papers published in international
medical journal the
Lancet has found.
The findings have prompted leading doctors and researchers – including those
from the US, UK and Australia – to jointly call for a societal shift that
challenges inaccurate assumptions.
A review of the medical literature on menopause, which was part of the series,
found misguided or harmful attitudes towards menopause were often pervasive in
high-income countries.
These countries needed to learn from societies where ageing in women conferred
respect and in which views of menopause were more affirming, the paper said,
noting Indigenous communities in Australia considered menopause as less of a
problem.
Rather than assuming midlife depression was often caused by menopause,
societies should “promote gender equity and safety across the lifespan since
early adversity increases the risk of poor mental health at midlife”, said the
paper, which focused on mental health during perimenopause.
The lead author of the series and chair of obstetrics and gynaecology at the
University of Melbourne, Prof Martha Hickey, and her co-authors raised concern
about the media’s tendency to focus on extreme negative experiences of
menopause, with menopause being depicted as an unfortunate and distressing
experience, which could only be resolved with hormone replacement.
“A normal event that affects everyone has been turned into a disease – a
hormone deficiency disease, which requires diagnosis and treatment,” Hickey
said.
“And in a society that has very strong feelings about ageing and women, this is
a disease which is thought to herald decline and decay amongst them.”
The paper argues that menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) should be available for
those who need it, but the evidence showed it was only effective for hot
flashes and night sweats, not other symptoms."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
