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 Mike Collins:
Ever since menopause ceased to be a subject only whispered about among women of a certain
age, the world has come to more fully understand what women face as they go through this
stage of life. Physicians have now discovered that symptoms associated with menopause
begin much earlier - as much as 15 years earlier at age 35. That means as many 20 million
American women are now going through something that has come to be called perimenopause.
It’s symptoms include insomnia, moodiness, forgetfulness or depression. It promises
many of the same hotflashes and migraines associated with menopause and this hormonal
roller coaster has been described as "PMS all month". A local Charlotte doctor
has written a book with advice on how to take charge of the change. She will join us along
with a nurse who is living through it. If
you’re a women, your hormones begin to betray you somewhere between 35 and 40 years
of age. One doctor describes the interaction of estrogens, progesterones and other
reproductive hormones at this stage, as no longer working together with the precise timing
of a Rolex, but instead acting like a Swiss watch which that’s gotten rusty. This is
the period before menopause which is now becoming known as perimenopause. Women going
through it are riding a roller coaster that has been called the mirror image of puberty.
And this new understanding has important implications for treatment. Although
perimenopause has been recognized by medical community since the 1970’s, it is still
not part of most med school curricula an some physician dismiss women’s complaints
about it as being "All in the their heads." Well not Dr. Nancy Lee Teaff, she is
a local reproductive endocrinologist who specializes in perimenopause, menopause and
infertility. She has written a book called "Perimenopause Preparing for the
Change". She join us this morning with Sue Spataro who is a registered nurse living
through the change and also has a website devoted to this purpose.
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