Kathleen - you raise a very important point. I personally don't think women 'sail' through menopause as such, it's just that some women suffer more symptoms and problems than others - they don't necessarily DO anything different or have any magic strategies that stop the symptoms, they are just LUCKY. Yes, you can and should improve your lifestyle, but for many women their 40s, 50s and 60s can be very stressful for many reasons e.g. continuing to work till late 60s, looking after elderly relatives, children unable to leave home etc. so having the time and energy to devote to managing menopausal symptoms can be very difficult. I'm afraid it's often the women who don't have to struggle badly with menopausal symptoms who will deride those who have bad symptoms as “ making a fuss†and they will often ridicule women for using HRT. When doctors send women away telling them to “ride the stormâ€, this really makes my blood boil.
I am 63, very post menopause (since late 30s) and stopped HRT 3 years ago - I used HRT for most of the last 25 years but found progesterone progressively more difficult to tolerate: though my meno symptoms are not as bad as they once were, I'm still suffering with occasional flushes, difficulty sleeping, bad headaches and my joints have deteriorated greatly despite plenty of appropriate exercise - for me the summer is torture.
Genetics must have something to do with all this and also some women's bodies possibly adjust better. It could be that their adrenals and other bodily functions pick up the slack. I have friends who have barely had a hot flush - ironically three friends who didn't suffer with bad menopausal symptoms, so didn't use HRT, actually developed breast cancer!!??
Also there are some who THINK they have sailed through menopause to find that after a couple of years (when the oestrogen levels have bottomed out) they start to get more symptoms. Things like urogenital atrophy can certainly come as a surprise to many women because they haven't had a problematic ‘change'.
We are all different and experience the menopause differently. The women who visit this site will often be those who wisely want to become more informed and deal with the menopause in a proactive way. There will be thousands of women who are suffering because their GPs have sent them away to ‘ride the storm' - some simply ‘don't want to make a fuss' or are frightened of trying HRT. Many women will be using HRT and simply getting on with life very successfully. Many women come to this site because they are finding it hard to find the right HRT type for them.
HRT won't fix everything, it's far from perfect and I think more needs to be done to help women with peri and post menopause, especially if they want us to work for longer. Women need o be encouraged to make their own choices about how they deal with symptoms and not be made to feel they are ‘making a fuss' or derided if they need HRT. GPs certainly need to stop dishing out antidepressants instead of HRT as the front line treatment. DG x
