Menopause

I wonder how this sentence got past the DEI police. "Approximately 55 million people in the US and approximately 1.1 billion people worldwide are postmenopausal women." Men who declare they are women don't experience menopause, and women who declare they are men do if they have retained their organs.   JAMA. 2024;331(20):1748-1760.

HRT, good or bad for menopausal women?

I do wish the medical community could come to some agreement on the benefits and dangers of HRT. Thirty years ago it was being pushed as the miracle preventative for osteoporosis, heart disease and dementia for menopausal women; then it became the kiss of death almost over night; then the waffling began after women lived in fear they'd taken the poison pill. Still arguing. But if it is this difficult to figure out how women, nature and hormones work (over fifty years of research), why in the world do some researchers and academics push the silly and dangerous transgendered woman nonsense. Is it just more money for Big Pharma or more big government grants for the medical schools?

https://www.medpagetoday.com/obgyn/hrt

"For women aged younger than 60 years or who are within 10 years of menopause onset and have no contraindications, the benefit-risk ratio is most favorable for treatment of bothersome VMS and for those at elevated risk for bone loss or fracture. For women who initiate HT more than 10 or 20 years from menopause onset or are aged 60 years or older, the benefit-risk ratio appears less favorable because of the greater absolute risks of coronary heart disease, stroke, venous thromboembolism, and dementia. Longer durations of therapy should be for documented indications such as persistent VMS or bone loss, with shared decision making and periodic reevaluation. For bothersome GSM symptoms not relieved with over-the-counter therapies and without indications for use of systemic HT, low-dose vaginal estrogen therapy or other therapies are recommended." North American Menopause Society statement, 2017

http://journals.lww.com/menopausejournal/Abstract/2017/07000/The_2017_hormone_therapy_position_statement_of_The.5.aspx

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Women who snore

Yes, we do. Maybe not as loud as the guys, maybe we don't rock the house or scare the dog, but we snore. Especially if we are fat. Today I was reading "Menopause not always to blame for sleep problems in midlife women" in the May 2 issue of JAMA (I'm not caught up, sorry). Lynne Lamberg reports that sleep complaints from midlife women (and we all have them) may not just be menopause. They may be more subjective than objective, too, because sleep lab studies show that postmenopausal women had better sleep overall than premenopausal women! Just a guess here, but I'm betting Lynne hasn't reached the hot flash, soak-the-bedsheets, wake-up-dripping stage of life yet. Here are some of the other causes

job stress

care responsibilities for aging parents

ill spouse

bed partner's snoring (I think it's funny that you have an "ill spouse," but the person you sleep with is a "bed partner." But I digress

obstructive sleep apnea (OSA)

restless leg syndrome (RLS)

Women with sleep apnea (and you know who you are, dear readers) "commonly present with insomnia, depression, fatigue, and hypothyroidism, and they are more likely to have higher body mass indexes (BMIs)" than men who have the same condition. The article then proceeds to discussing the medical profession's cop-out--encourage the woman with OSA to use CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure). It only requires 6 hours of use nightly to restore sleepiness to normal levels--but it does nothing for the sex life, so many women refuse to use it.

Restless leg syndrome (feels like bugs crawling) also is aggrevated by higher BMI and by smoking. It too can cause depression, drowsy driving, impaired concentration, anxiety and all that other stuff we mid-lifers get. Again, the medical profession recommends a medication that affects the brain center.

So after reading the article, I asked my husband a simple question: "Do you think I snore as much as I used to?" He didn't hesitate to think. "No."

I wasn't enormous--I was just at the tipping edge of my range on the BMI scale, but I did lose the 20 pounds I didn't need (see my TT about food triggers). The reason I asked wasn't just this article. I had noticed I wasn't waking up as much at night and was wondering what was different. I didn't connect it with the weight loss. This is not medical advice, but if you ask your doctor about your sleep problems, I'm guessing you'll be told to lose weight. I'd at least pass on the CPAP or the meds and try 10-20 lbs to see if that helps.