 |
Hotflash!
|
 |
|||
 Mike Collins: Well, historically it was whispered about in the 1950’s and
60’s and discussed on talk shows like this one. In your practice, when you became an
endocrinologist and fertility specialist. What has been your patient’s attitude
toward this as they approach it or as they discover the first symptoms of it.
Mike Collins: Is that part of the menopausal situation? Dr. Teaff: That’s part of aging. But several studies have shown that estrogen
replace therapy reduces the incidence of Alzherimer’s disease in women by 40 to 50
percent and since it looks like after age 85 the risk of Alzheimer’s is about 50%.
It’s not just a personal issue, but a societal issue. Can we really afford that many
people in the fastest growing segment of our population (over age 85), who are debilitated
with Alzheimer’s disease. Women are very concerned about their long life and quality
of life. Sue Spataro: Also, about memory and thinking, you talk about one extreme which is Alzheimer’s, which is a very real concern, but on a more immediate front, many women find themselves when they are perimenopause, that their memory and cognitive and thinking skills are not working as well as it previously was. What does that mean? Does it mean that forget where they put the keys? Yeah, but it can be much more severe than that ranging from forgetting the kids dental appointment, showing up at the right time to forgetting that something is in the oven. Dr. Teaff: I have patients that work in high functioning jobs, where they literally say that they have difficulty with figures, like difficulty with. It is interesting, whereas hotflashes used to bring women to the doctor more often. It is more subtle in one respect but more important to the woman on the other hand. |
|||||
| Questions? Ideas? Comments? contact us at hotflash@families-first.com | |||||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Dr Teaff: I think women used to wait until they were flat out miserable
before they cam into the doctor. Also, it was typical to headed out Premarin. It was the
only estrogen that was available. "Take your premarin and you’ll be fine. And go
away" And there wasn’t much attention towards the fact that women were going to
live another half or third of their adult lives after menopause and we needed to prepare
for this better. So, it used to be a more transient "fix my symptoms, make me feel
better now" situation, whereas patients come in today really looking forward to
living to ag 80 or beyond. They are very concerned about osteoporosis. If there’s
Alzheimer’s disease in the family they are so concerned. They don’t want to get
Alzheimer’s themselves, they’ll do anything to try to reduce that.