Cure Menopause Symptoms

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm Dr. Joshua Vogel with Carolina Ob-Gyn, a division of Wilmington Health Associates and I'm supposed to talk to you today about curing menopause, however there is no actual cure for menopause, it will be with you for the rest of your life but there are plenty of effective treatments available. The most common mainstay of treatment for menopausal symptoms is the use of hormone supplementation most commonly estrogen alone or a combination of estrogen plus progesterone. Whether or not requiring progesterone depends on whether or not you still have a uterus or have had a hysterectomy. Women who have a uterus and they're taking estrogen need to be on progesterone as well. Women who have had a hysterectomy can go with just estrogens. Estrogens do have risks as many of you are probably aware including some serious potential consequences including stroke, potentially heart attack, breast cancer, blood clots. These occurrences in the younger age group through age 55 and perhaps up to age 60 are very uncommon but certainly require a discussion and consideration with your health care provider. For the women for whom hormone supplementation is not appropriate for their individual situation, there are other approaches that can be taken. The primary menopausal symptom is hot flashes, many other symptoms have been ascribed to the menopause but most of these really accrue from hot flashes or other normal life changes. So the primary goal of treatment for menopause should be treating the hot flashes. If estrogen is inappropriate, certain anti-depressants are available that can be effective as well and should be considered. There are many over the counter products and certainly many products that one can find available online but one should be very careful about the use of these as nothing other than estrogen and anti-depressants has really proven effective or been FDA approved for this treatment. This has been a discussion of treatments for menopausal symptoms."