Why is water so important during the menopause?
18th of October is World Menopause Day, isn’t it great that we have this day and that information on the menopause can be found so easily? When I started working on the Helpline at A Vogel 15 years ago there was so very little out there and the menopause was still quite an unknown journey for most women.
Thinking about all those years answering menopause queries, one of the first things that struck me was that every month, every year, since the beginning, menopause questions have topped the query list. So it seems that even in this enlightened age women still need answers. Today we not only have the Helpline but also Live Chat and email links from our website Menopause Extra pages, and the number of women contacting us has increased dramatically.
Why? I ask myself. Surely after all this time women should know what is happening to them and what they can do to help themselves; but this just doesn’t seem to be the case. Education about the menopause is really non- existent. Also there are an increasing number of women who contact us distressed and unhappy about the lack of support from their doctor. I am usually a very calm, unruffled person but it really makes me so mad when a woman says that her doctor’s advice is, ‘It’s your age, you are just going to have to put up with it’; or that they dismiss terrible symptoms as ‘being in your head, there is nothing wrong with you’; or, that they are ‘encouraged’ to go on HRT, as ‘there is nothing else that will help’.
So, I am on a mission! I want to see all surgeries having a Menopause Education Programme. They bring you in at 50 to have a general health MOT, so why not have a menopause awareness course for those over forty? I know this seems a bit young but the earlier you are prepared for the menopause the better and these programmes may help to educate the doctors as well!
I would also love to see health food shops doing the same thing. Getting women educated in natural remedies could help with the minor symptoms and save so many women from the trauma of coming off HRT. This is another big issue with me: doctors prescribe HRT often for the littlest of symptoms but then at some point say ‘You have to stop now, you have been on it long enough’, and they whisk it away leaving the poor woman with terrible withdrawal symptoms and no help or sympathy!
A pipe dream? I hope not! But in the meantime I hope that our A.Vogel Menopause Mission to provide a comprehensive information and support service continues to grow and help as many women as we can. Please spread the word.
