Changing Your Lifestyle to Manage Menopause Efficiently

The following lifestyle changes may help reduce bothersome symptoms and decrease health risks associated with menopause:

Increase Your Intake of Phytoestrogens

A high intake of phytoestrogens (isoflavones and lignans) may help reduce your menopausal symptoms. They may also reduce your risk for diseases associated with estrogen loss. Phytoestrogens occur naturally in certain foods:

Isoflavones: soybeans, chickpeas, and legumes

Lignans: flaxseeds, whole grains, and some fruits and vegetables

It’s also been suggested that vitamin E, wild yams, and black cohosh may help relieve menopausal symptoms.

Eat a Healthful Diet

A healthful diet during menopause can improve your sense of well-being. It may also reduce the risk of heart disease, osteoporosis, and certain cancers. Your diet should be low in saturated fat and high in fruits, vegetables, and grains. An adequate intake of calcium (1200 to 1500 mg per day) can help lower your risk of osteoporosis. You can increase the calcium in your diet by eating more calcium-rich dairy foods (low-fat or nonfat preferred), leafy green vegetables, and calcium-fortified foods and juices. Vitamin D, found in sunlight and certain foods (fortified milk, liver and tuna), helps your body absorb calcium.

Limit Caffeine and Alcohol

Cutting back on caffeine and alcohol may reduce symptoms of anxiety and insomnia. It may also reduce the loss of calcium from your body and reduce your risk of other health problems.


Quit Smoking

Smoking is the number one preventable cause of premature death. Giving up smoking can reduce your risk of early menopause, heart disease, osteoporosis, and many types of cancer, including lung and cervical cancer. Many women quit smoking successfully, often after several attempts. Your health care provider may offer medication that can help, such as the antidepressant Zyban (bupropion) and other smoking cessation aids, such as nicotine patches and gums. Support groups and smoking cessation classes can also help. The most successful smoking cessation programs involve a combination of behavior modification techniques and drug therapy.

Exercise Regularly

Regular exercise is a great remedy for many symptoms of menopause. It helps promote better sleep, stimulates brain chemicals that can reduce negative feelings and depression, and may reduce hot flashes. Weight-bearing exercises such as walking, climbing stairs, and resistance exercises such as lifting weights help to strengthen your bones and decrease your risk of osteoporosis.

Manage Stress

During menopause you may be facing many stressors, such as raising children or having children leave home, caring for elderly parents, and juggling a number of responsibilities. You can reduce stress by taking care of your whole self. This means eating a healtful diet, getting plenty of sleep, exercising regularly, and having enough time for rest and recreation. A variety of relaxation techniques can also help you to cope more effectively with stress. Examples include meditation, deep breathing, progressive relaxation, yoga and biofeedback.

Stay Cool

If you are having hot flashes, try making a diary of when they happen and what seems to trigger them. This may help you find out what to avoid. Otherwise:

* When a hot flash starts, go somewhere that is cool.

* Sleeping in a cool room may keep hot flashes from waking you up during the night.

* Dress in layers that you can take off if you get warm.

* Use sheets and clothing that let your skin "breathe."

* Carry a small, battery operated fan in your briefcase or purse

* Try having a cold drink (water or juice) at the beginning of a hot flash.

* Avoid hot foods like soup or spicy foods

Sphere: Related Content

Stressfully Work Yourself To Early Menopause

Having a job which is too stressful can hasten the onset of the menopause, according to a new French study.
Led by Dr Bernard Cassou, the French team considered menopausal and social histories in more than 1,500 women in the country, all born in 1938.
The study found that the average age for the start of menopause in nine percent of the women deemed to have 'high-pressure' jobs in the study was a year earlier than the overall norm.
Accordingly, the stress of having to juggle time deadlines within the workplace may "affect the ageing of the ovaries", suggested Dr Cassou.
Other menopause experts, however, have reacted with scepticism at the new findings, claiming that a number of factors can affect when the menopause hits.
"People who want to find links do, but there's a vast body of research which shows there is no evidence of a connection between stress and the menopause," Professor John Studd, chairman of the British Menopause Society, told the BBC.
The average age of the menopause in the UK is around 52, though one percent of British women are thought to experience it before the age of 40.

Sphere: Related Content

Use of Local Estrogen for Treatment of Vaginal Atrophy in Postmenopausal Women

An evaluation of the safety and effectiveness of local vaginal estrogen therapy for the treatment of vaginal atrophy, a frequent complaint of postmenopausal women, has just been released by The North American Menopause Society (NAMS). Entitled "The role of local vaginal estrogen for treatment of vaginal atrophy in postmenopausal women: 2007 position statement of The North American Menopause Society," the document was developed by an Editorial Board of five clinicians and researchers expert in this area of women's health, then approved by the NAMS Board of Trustees.

"Although hot flashes typically accompany the loss of ovarian estrogen production at menopause, they usually abate over time regardless of whether estrogen therapy is used," said Gloria A. Bachmann, MD, Associate Dean for Women's Health, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Professor of Medicine, UMDNJ, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ, and Chair of the Editorial Board. "In contrast, vaginal symptoms (eg, vaginal dryness, vulvovaginal irritation and itching, and painful intercourse) are usually progressive and unlikely to resolve spontaneously. Left untreated, vaginal atrophy can result in years of discomfort, with a significant impact on quality of life. An estimated 10% to 40% of postmenopausal women have symptoms related to vaginal atrophy, yet only about 25% of symptomatic women seek medical help."

The new position statement represents the most authoritative state-of-the-science summary. Significant findings include:

-- Estrogen therapy, used either locally (ie, vaginally) or systemically (eg, orally, through the skin), is considered the therapeutic standard for moderate to severe vaginal atrophy.

-- Local vaginal delivery of estrogen is available in North America in government-approved therapies via cream, tablet, and ring--with fewer systemic effects than estrogen by topical, parenteral, or oral delivery.

-- Randomized controlled trials, although limited, have shown that low-dose, local vaginal estrogen delivery is effective and well tolerated for treating vaginal atrophy.

-- All the low-dose vaginal estrogen products approved in the United States for treatment of vaginal atrophy are equally effective at the doses recommended in labeling. Choice of therapy should be guided by clinical experience and patient preference.

-- Progestogen is generally not indicated when low-dose estrogen is used locally for vaginal atrophy.

-- Data are insignificant to recommend annual surveillance of the endometrium (lining of uterus) in asymptomatic women using vaginal estrogen.

-- Vaginal estrogen therapy should be continued for as long as symptoms that are distressing to the patient remain.

-- For women treated for non-hormone-dependent cancer, management of vaginal atrophy is similar to that for women without a cancer history.

-- For women with a history of hormone-dependent cancer, management recommendations are dependent upon each woman's preference in consultation with her oncologist.

The position statement is published in the May/June 2007 issue of the Society's official journal, Menopause. It has been designated a NAMS CME activity (print/online). A PDF of the paper, as well as a set of nine slides that summarize the paper's contents, are available without charge from the NAMS Web site (http://www.menopause.org/aboutmeno/consensus.htm).

NAMS is grateful to Novo Nordisk, Inc., for its educational grant that supported development of this statement.

The Mission of NAMS, a nonprofit scientific organization, is to promote the health and quality of life of women through an understanding of menopause. The Society's membership of 2,000 professionals representing a variety of disciplines--including clinical and basic science experts from medicine, nursing, pharmacy, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and complementary/alternative medicine--makes NAMS uniquely qualified to serve as the definitive resource for health professionals and the public for accurate, unbiased information about menopause. (www.menopause.org)

Sphere: Related Content