Atlanta advocates for menopause relief applaud new options

A day later, actress Halle Berry shouted “I’m in menopause” from the Capitol in support of a $275 million federal funding bill for more research, training and awareness about the condition often misunderstood and stigmatized health issue which marks the end of women’s periods. cycling around age 50.

“It takes a movie star to be heard,” said Quaile, a DNP, adding that women’s health has been left out of research funding for decades. “I’m so excited that more people are advocating for health and that providers can help them.”

The proposed menopause spending bill and reversal of the WHI findings raise hope for menopausal women and the health care providers who care for them. Doctors stopped prescribing hormones to their patients after the WHI’s menopausal hormone trial abruptly ended in 2002, due to concerns about an increased risk of heart disease, breast cancer, stroke and pulmonary embolism.

A follow-up to the 2002 WHI study, published in JAMA last week, shows that for many postmenopausal women younger than 60, the benefits of medications likely outweigh the risks of short-term treatment of symptoms such such as hot flashes and night sweats.

“We’ve been debunking these early findings for 20 years, knowing that (hormone therapy is) safe for most people and that it does a lot of good” in treating menopausal symptoms, Quaile said. She said she believed the original WHI study was flawed because the average age of clinical trial participants was 63, and at that age, women generally have a higher risk of complications such as heart disease .

Before 2002, doctors who advised their patients to take medications to relieve menopausal symptoms and to protect long-term against heart attacks changed their recommendations. Quaile said she has expanded her practice to include hormonal care for women turned down by primary care doctors who do not want to prescribe hormones or are not properly trained to do so.

To address the unmet needs of this population, Atlanta obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Lathan Overstreet recently decided to focus his practice on menopause management and created the Center for Maternal and Women’s Health.

Overstreet said he was happy that Berry publicly acknowledged the “disabilities” of menopause. “She has a platform and a voice. It’s good to know that people share your plight and are ready to defend it. For example: “We recognized brain fog from COVID, but no one recognized it with menopause. »

Regarding the results of the new WHI study, he said it will be some time before doctors feel comfortable prescribing hormones again. “They’re not going to flood the market,” Overstreet said. Over the past two decades, he has suggested that postmenopausal women try supplements and alternative therapies. But he believes the hormones will provide much-needed relief from menopausal symptoms. “I’ll wait and look at the data.” He said he would also consider prescribing hormones again if the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists supported WHI’s new findings.

Atlanta physical therapist Eleanore Purser recently started the Menopause Support Atl Facebook group to help women at this stage of life find care and discuss common problems. “The WHI has done a great disservice to women’s care. For so long, we struggled to find practitioners willing to prescribe hormone replacement therapy.

Purser has been taking HRT for about seven months and believes it is effective in treating not only hot flashes and night sweats, but also other symptoms associated with menopause as well as preventing chronic disease.

“Halle Berry wants to be a spokesperson for menopause and it’s great… to be able to exert her influence in such a positive way.” Thanks to his advocacy and others, “the needle is moving so we can get the care we need.”

The next step is for patients to speak with their doctors, who need additional education on menopause care. “It’s not a life stage covered enough in medical schools and it affects women’s lives for decades.” It’s quite astonishing.

Dr. Denise Umpierrez-Morley, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Atlanta Obstetrics and Gynecology Associates, said menopause is not a priority in medical schools, residencies and training. “Because doing HRT is an interest of mine, I had to research it. This is an area of ​​life that I knew very little about, so I decided to take it to a new level and learn.

Umpierrez-Morley pointed to incremental improvements in hormone replacement care since the WHI study. But if doctors didn’t follow the research, she understands why they might fear prescribing the drug. Hopefully that will change with federal funding for menopause training, she said. “I was afraid to prescribe HRT, so to feel comfortable I had to practice more. »

Doctors should review the research, assess the risks to their patients and discuss the risks and benefits with them, she said. “It involves a lot of personalized care. There are a lot of changes to medications. This is not a one-size-fits-all solution.