CNN Vital Signs addresses perspectives on menopause and women’s health

Scientifically, the menopause It is a stage in a woman’s life when menstruation naturally stops, as female hormones, such as estrogen and progesterone, are no longer produced by the ovaries.

This phase usually occurs, on average, between 48 and 51 years of age. But for many women, the arrival of this stage of life can be frightening and due to myths and prejudices.

Menopause marks a transition period in a woman’s reproductive life, with a long duration, which can be from 20 to 25 years, depending on the date of the last menstruation. At this stage, gynecologists can help prevent diseases such as breast cancer and osteoporosis, for example.

O CNN Vital Signs this week reveals that there is no reason to be afraid and that it is possible to live very well with menopause. The program presented by the cardiologist Roberto Kalil airs this Sunday (9), at 7:30 pm, reinforcing the diversified content with the brand CNN Soft .

Signs and symptoms of menopause

In the episode, experts explain that some relevant symptoms appear in the period of transition to menopause and post-menopause in general.

“Women can have vasomotor instability during this period, which are hot flashes or hot flashes, and menstrual changes – the cycles begin to become irregular”, says gynecologist Edmund Baracat, a professor at the University of São Paulo (USP) – see the interview above .

“These are sudden attacks of heat in general, affecting the upper part of the chest, neck and face. The heat wave comes, it lasts a few minutes, but the impression is that it lasts much longer, due to the discomfort of this symptom. He usually has a rapid heart rate and hot sweating accompanied by sweating. These symptoms usually happen at night, impairing the woman’s sleep”, adds doctor César Eduardo Fernandes, professor of gynecology at the ABC School of Medicine.

In the episode, the presenter Solange Frazão one of the first fitness muses in Brazil, tells a little about her experience.

“Menopause came into my life a little slowly. She reached the age of 52 to 53, when menstruation began to fail. The cycles in my life never bothered me. I was a woman who didn’t have cramps, I didn’t have delays, they were always very straight forward. So much so that I never needed to take contraceptives, it was all a little table, everything was straight. And when menopause started to show signs, I started to feel the absence of the cycle”, reports Solange.

A healthy lifestyle icon, Solange intensified exercise during this period, cut sugars and maintains a balanced diet, in addition to taking hormone therapy on a timely basis.

“As I really like taking care of my health, I already asked the gynecologist. And he said: I think menopause is coming. I arrived and looked at myself, in the mirror and said: very happy menopause, welcome”, says the presenter.

health care

The doctor Rogério Bonassi Machado, president of the Brazilian Association of Climacteric, says that the care during the menopause period aims beyond the relief of symptoms, considering women’s health as a whole.

“When we talk about treating a climacteric, treating menopause, we are talking about general attention to female health. First by tracking chronic diseases, seeing the women who are hurting themselves the most at that moment, promoting lifestyle measures. Encouraging physical exercise, proper diet, smoking cessation is all part of a global action”, says Machado.

hormone therapy

The specialist explains that hormone therapy involves the administration of the hormone that is missing for the woman at that moment, which is estrogen.

“We know that this treatment is effective against hot flashes, improves urogenital atrophy and prevents osteoporosis. This is the tripod of menopausal hormone treatment. Not all women will need hormone therapy. All this is done one by one, there is no universal recipe for all women. In fact, this is the most important thing: that each woman has the most appropriate treatment for her”, he points out.

Doctor César Eduardo Fernandes says that hormone therapy is still surrounded by myths, which can harm women’s adherence to treatment.

“The first issue, the most relevant that women fear a lot is gaining weight. And the second is with regard to cancer risk,” she says.

According to the specialist, after menopause, women have an attenuation of the so-called basal metabolism. “Basal metabolism is assumed to fall by about 2% per decade. So, it is important to guide women that they need less caloric intake and more energy expenditure at this stage of life”, he explains.

In relation to breast cancer, Fernandes says that hormonal treatment was once considered a concern in relation to the disease, but that scientific evidence indicates that the risks are the same for those who do not take hormone therapy.

“Nowadays, we also know that if they take the hormone within five years, it does not increase their risk of breast cancer. The risk of breast cancer in a hormone therapy user in the first five years compared to a non-hormone user is the same,” she says.

Quality of life

Journalist and presenter Ana Paula Padrão, who participated in the episode, says that she benefited from hormone therapy, without contraindications.

“I know that there is still a lot of prejudice around hormone replacement, there are doctors who don’t recommend it and there are women who don’t adapt, who have a lot of symptoms that are more harmful than the hormone loss itself. There are a lot of things we have to discuss, but there are women like me who adapt very well to replacement. For me, it did a lot of good”, says Ana.

The journalist says that the search for the best type of hormone replacement should be an individualized process, considering the characteristics of each patient.

“What I think you need to have is information. For you to choose, woman, if you are going to do the classic hormone replacement, if you are going to choose some other type of hormone replacement, because there are several, if you don’t want to do that and you want to go through the symptoms, but you want them to be less aggressive, go take something just to lessen your symptoms, you can choose,” he says.