Menopause
Should We Medicalise or Embrace The Menopause?
Delay the inevitable or accept this rite of passage
It all started with an article on the BBC news website on 11 August 2019 referring to a shortage of Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT). It told of many women and their families suffering as a result of these treatments not being available. I can understand that when we are relying on medicine to keep us going, not having it is devastating and we feel let down, perhaps even deceived. It is sad, though I am wondering if our attitude to this inevitable stage in a woman’s life is helping or hindering us. Is the medical model adopted in the Western World producing expectations that taking a pill a day will keep the menopause away, as if it is a cure for a disease? Perhaps there are other ways of thinking about this time in every woman’s life?
The menopause is viewed as part of the ageing process, a time when a woman’s eggs run out and we can no longer reproduce. Our oestrogen and progesterone levels drop (incidentally, these have been reducing since our mid 30’s) and as a result, we get symptoms like erratic moods, sweats day and night, lack of natural lubrication during sex or atrophy, thinning of the vaginal walls, sleepless nights, tiredness and aches. It’s no surprise we are looking for a wonder pill to reverse time.
