(Press-News.org)
A sweeping new guide to menopause by a UVA Health expert and collaborators highlights the profound and sometimes surprising effects the “change of life” can have on women’s lives, health, workplaces and even finances.
The paper represents a holistic review of what we know about menopause and what we still need to learn. While it is directed primarily at doctors and scientists, it offers fascinating insights into how menopause affects American women and women worldwide.
According to article co-author JoAnn V. Pinkerton, MD, UVA Health's director of midlife health, such insights represent vital information for women, their physicians, policymakers and society at large.
“Hormonal changes occurring during the menopause transition may be associated with physical and psychological symptoms including irregular menstrual cycles, hot flashes and night sweats, vaginal dryness, mood changes, sleep disruptions and brain fog. Although all women go through menopause, less than 15% of them receive effective, individualized, evidence-based treatment for their symptoms,” said Pinkerton, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and executive director emeritus of the North American Menopause Society. “Working with menopause specialists from different countries, our paper summarizes what we know about menopause and calls for more research into the timeline and treatment of menopause. Menopause affects not only those going through it but also those who love them, live with them and work with them.”
Navigating Menopause
The researchers cite studies that found that moderate to severe menopause symptoms are associated with a decreased ability to perform work tasks and that this decrease is often associated with worse workplace outcomes for the women suffering them – especially for Black and Hispanic women.
This reduction particularly affects certain subgroups of women, including those who do not have a partner, those who smoke, those who are overweight or obese, those who serve as a caregiver for others and those who lack secure housing.
One survey of women in the United Kingdom found that those who reported struggling with menopause symptoms were more likely to suffer financial problems, depression and self-reported health issues, the researchers note.
“The United Kingdom is way ahead of the United States in addressing and minimizing the effects of menopause in women in the workplace,” Pinkerton said. “We need to improve our care of menopausal women both with individualized treatment options and address their needs in the workplace.”
Menopause Treatment
Thankfully, effective treatment options are available, and the new scientific paper offers a review of those options and which may be best suited for particular groups of patients. It also calls out one category of treatments that should be viewed with a skeptical eye: “Complementary and alternate medicines (CAMs) for menopausal symptoms have been frequently touted, are widely advertised, and have an overall dismal track record of efficacy when subjected to rigorous scientific study,” the experts note.
For example, popular phyto (plant) estrogen supplements have been studied extensively in numerous trials, but the researchers say no benefits have been found. Black cohosh, another dietary supplement sometimes used to treat menopause symptoms, has so far been found to be safe but of limited effectiveness.
Pinkerton hopes that the new paper will help women and their physicians sort fact from fiction when it comes to menopause and that it will serve as an important roadmap to good health in later life. For women, “optimizing health at menopause is the gateway to healthy aging,” Pinkerton and her co-authors note.
“We now have effective hormonal and nonhormonal treatment options for women suffering from menopause or at increased health risks as their estrogen levels decline,” Pinkerton said. “For menopausal women, don't suffer in silence – ask for help! At UVA, we have menopause specialists available to help those navigating the menopause transition and beyond.”
Review Published
The menopause review has been published in the scientific journal Cell. The article is open access, meaning it is free to read. It was written by Susan R. Davis, Pinkerton, Nanette Santoro and Tommaso Simoncini.
To keep up with the latest medical research news from UVA, subscribe to the Making of Medicine blog at http://makingofmedicine.virginia.edu.
END
Mount Sinai Health System announced today that “Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital” is the new name for its top-ranked heart service, formerly known as Mount Sinai Heart. The renaming honors Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, Physician-in-Chief of The Mount Sinai Hospital and President of the Fuster Heart Hospital, for the immeasurable impact that he has made and will continue to make on the field of cardiology and his leadership at Mount Sinai.
Over the last 25 years, Dr. Fuster has transformed Mount Sinai’s heart service into a world-leading center for cardiovascular disease, providing exceptional and compassionate care for cardiac patients, new and innovative ...
(New York, NY – October 26, 2023) – The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has received a $4.6 million gift from the Pershing Square Foundation to support women’s health research and advance careers for female scientists. Part of an original nearly $21 million gift that expanded a COVID-19 testing program for New York City schools and other organizations, this boost in women-focused initiatives connects the Pershing Square Foundation’s interest in supporting women in science to Mount Sinai’s leading researchers and key initiatives ...
CLEVELAND—A researcher from the Case Western Reserve University Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing has been awarded a $3.5 million federal grant for research to improve sleep health and glucose management in young adults with type 1 diabetes.
Positive findings could lead to adding the intervention in current care protocols. The ultimate goal is to improve outcomes for a population that struggles to maintain blood-sugar (glycemic) targets, compared to other age groups.
“Young adults with type 1 diabetes are a high-risk group, and I am committed to improving their ...
AMHERST, Mass. — Last year, trucks moved 73%—11.5 billion tons—of the freight in the U.S., making trucks—and truckers—crucial to the U.S. economy. With automation in trucking projected to grow 22% over the next 10 years, a team of University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers has received a grant to explore how automation will affect the role of American long-haul truckers.
An interdisciplinary group of researchers led by Shannon Roberts, associate professor of mechanical and industrial engineering, has been awarded nearly $2 million over four years by the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Future of Work Program.
“We know ...
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The discovery of a physical interaction between two proteins in brain cells that can be traced in mice to control of movement, anxiety and memory could one day open the door to development of new schizophrenia treatment strategies, researchers say.
The research group is the first to determine that the two proteins, both among the dozens of proteins related to risk for the development of schizophrenia, bind to each other under normal conditions in multiple regions of the brain, ...
Thirty-seven research groups will receive €395 million in total to address some of the world’s most formidable research problems spanning a range of scientific disciplines. The funding helps groups of outstanding researchers to pool different skills, knowledge and resources to push the frontiers of our knowledge. The ERC Synergy Grant scheme is part of the EU's research and innovation programme, Horizon Europe.
Iliana Ivanova, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, said: “Some scientific questions are too complex to be addressed by researchers working on their own. Challenges such as climate change or ...
An international team of researchers, led by IMDEA Networks and Northeastern University in collaboration with NYU Tandon School of Engineering, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, IMDEA Software, University of Calgary, and the International Computer Science Institute, has unveiled groundbreaking findings on the security and privacy challenges posed by the ever-growing prevalence of opaque and technically complex Internet of Things (IoT) devices in smart homes.
Smart Homes: Trusted and Secure Environments?
Smart homes are becoming increasingly interconnected, ...
PULLMAN, Wash. -- A new tool to rapidly grow cancer-killing white blood cells could advance the availability of immunotherapy, a promising therapy which harnesses the power of the body’s immune response to target cancer cells.
Washington State University researchers have developed a minifridge-sized bioreactor that is able to manufacture the cells, called T cells, at 95% of the maximum growth rate – about 30% faster than current technologies. The researchers report on their work in the journal Biotechnology Progress. They developed it using T cells from cattle, developed by co-author Bill Davis of WSU’s ...
The Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) receives its second generous ERC Synergy Grant. ISTA Professor Gašper Tkačik is one of three awarded researchers to join forces on unraveling the secrets of gene regulation during mammalian development.
Three research groups from Austria and France team up to crack open the black box of early mammalian development. Now endowed with a prestigious Synergy Grant from the European Research Council (ERC), Gašper Tkačik (ISTA), Thomas Gregor (Institut Pasteur), ...
Osaka, Japan – A rapid, accurate way of testing for COVID-19 infection would be a big step in overcoming the virus’ hold over our society. Now, in an article published in Lab on a Chip, Japanese researchers have developed a promising solution: a novel platform that couples nanopore technology with artificial intelligence.
What is a nanopore? A nanopore is a miniscule hole in a thin substrate, often a silicon wafer. A nanopore might range from several nanometers to several hundred nanometers in diameter — a scale small enough to work with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes ...
