One woman transitions through menopause and runs into problems trying to find words — words that used to easily come to mind. Her friend can find her words just fine, but she can no longer eat certain foods thanks to menopause.
For the 1.3 million women who enter menopause each year in the United States, the future is far from clear because no two women take the same journey.
To say that menopause has a broad reach is almost an understatement, given that menopause can touch nearly every area of your health, either directly or indirectly.
Few people understand this better than Dr. Karen F. Brodman, who is not only a board-certified gynecologist, but is also a Menopause Society Certified Practitioner.
Given her focus on all things menopause, here’s what Dr. Brodman wants you to know.
To date, scientists have identified about 50 different hormones. These tiny chemical messengers travel around your body to regulate function and health.
Some of these hormones, which include estrogen and progesterone, oversee reproductive function, which is an important function from a biological standpoint (procreation equals species survival).
Another name for these hormones is sex hormones because they guide your gender characteristics — the things that differentiate males from females, such as facial hair and musculature.
While these connections are clear, there are many more indirect connections as your reproductive hormones interact with your body in a way that impacts a wide range of areas.
If you do an Internet search for symptoms of menopause, you’re met with very different numbers. Our view is that the numbers don’t really matter. What matters is that we understand that when women lose most of these hormones after menopause, the effects are extensive.
Some of the more prominent and common menopause symptoms include these areas:
Many women are unfamiliar with or caught by surprise by this list, but we've left out other ways that your reproductive hormones affect your health.
For example, estrogen hormones promote vasodilation and lower blood pressure, so they impact your cardiovascular health.
Reproductive hormones are also involved in your gastrointestinal health, so their absence can cause big changes in how your body processes different foods. Not to mention, there’s a menopause symptom known as burning mouth, which is a pesky side effect that leads to, you guessed it, a mouth that feels like it’s burning.
Another result of menopause can be tinnitus, which is a ringing in one or both of your ears.
Our goal in outlining some of these less-talked-about side effects of menopause is to underscore the point that this hormonal transition is about far more than hot flashes.
So, if you’ve transitioned through menopause and you’re undergoing a constellation of seemingly unrelated changes, they might be connected.
And that’s where a practitioner like Dr. Brodman comes in — between her expertise and her experience, she can help you get on the right treatment path.
To figure out how menopause is affecting you, contact us to schedule a consultation with Dr. Brodman at our New York City office located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
