The hormonal phenomenon of menopause affects all menstruating people at some point in their life, with symptoms that are sometimes very disabling for social and professional life, in particular because of the depression caused during this period.
Just like menstruation or diseases that particularly affect women such as endometriosis, menopause and its symptoms have long been taboo or considered simply a matter of comfort medicine by the medical profession.
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It is only very recently that research has resumed around this menstrual mechanism, the symptoms of which are known to affect 85% of women – the vast majority – and therefore affect society as a whole.
A combination of symptoms
Menopause affects anyone who has had a period in their lifetime from around 45 to 50 years old. So women active in the world of work and in life in general.
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It is very important to carry out solid studies around the symptoms and their treatment in this transition phase. Aside from hot flashes and mood swings, depression is a significant problem: its rates can double in women going through peri-menopause or menopause compared to those who haven’t yet gone through that stage.
Indeed, all these symptoms can accumulate and affect women to different degrees, such as experiencing an impact on sleep, suffering from cold sweats or memory lapses. Other women experience damage to their libido.
For a more feminist approach
To relieve them, hormone replacement treatments have been in place since the 1950s. But very quickly, studies associated these drugs with an increased risk of breast cancer, which led a large number of patients and therapists to turn away from these solutions, without having any real alternative.
Today, medicine is much less alarmist, but it is still difficult to know if this link between breast cancer and the intake of estrogens and progesterones is a purely statistical link or if there really is a causal link. .
The more results there are, the more nuanced the picture, but the data is still lacking. On the side of specialists, more and more voices are being raised for the adoption of a more feminist approach to medicine, therefore integrating these elements into public health policies.
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new projects
In French-speaking Switzerland, several research projects are to be launched soon. In Lausanne, for example, teams from the University andUnizedwant to assess “the impact of menopause on the professional world”: a request for funding is in progress.
Awareness of the importance of this phenomenon for women and, above all, for health as a whole, is in its infancy.
Other projects want to assess the impact of menopause on cardiovascular disease (read box).
Subject radio: Sophie Iselin
Web article: Stephanie Jaquet
The CQFD program will return this Tuesday to the subject of menopause with a report at the HUG where workshops are offered to women to better manage this transition phase.