My girlfriend Laurie sighed. “Elephants are easy,” she said. We are a 50 year old woman and she mentioned how elephants don’t go through menopause unlike humans.
I imagine our conversation 25 years ago might have gone in a different direction. “Elephants are tough,” she would have said at the time. “They carry their babies for about 20 months, which is a long gestation period. Additionally, they can become pregnant for almost their entire adult life.”
Ladies, choose your poison.
The only creatures thought to experience menopause are killer whales, some toothed whales (beluga whales, narwhals, short-finned pilot whales), coral chimpanzees, and humans.
menopause. Seriously? Shouldn’t this be called menopause?
Despite how it feels, menopause is natural, not pathological, and is a permanent cessation of ovarian function. It has nothing to do with men and there is no pause associated with it. Menopause occurs due to the loss of follicles, also known as eggs.
Men continue to produce sperm until they die. Actor Al Pacino, 83, gave birth to his fourth child last year. He was 53 years older than his mother. And yes, this was legal.
Conversely, women are born with a finite number of eggs throughout their lives. When a woman reaches critical levels, the brain works harder to stimulate the ovaries to secrete eggs, and the pituitary gland in the brain produces high levels of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) . (Thank you, brain, for never giving up on believing I was young enough to ovulate!) But the ovaries know best and give up. Menopausal disorders occur.
As a doctor, I can measure blood levels of FSH and LH to confirm menopause.
Menopause is more difficult for some people than others. In addition to the loss of regular periods, menopause can cause weight gain, hot flashes, night sweats, thinning hair, bone loss, anxiety, depression, decreased sex drive and concentration, vaginal dryness, and difficulty sleeping. There is a gender. If that’s not enough, it can cause joint, bone, and muscle pain as well as hormonal imbalances that affect connective tissue, making women more susceptible to injuries such as frozen shoulder, sports injuries, and exercise fatigue.
Personally, my first clue of menopause was hearing a pulsating hissing sound in my ears. I felt like I was the narrator of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart. It was infuriating. After doing some research, I found out that it could be a symptom of menopause. There is no dead man’s heartbeat like Poe wrote about. It’s just my stupid old self experiencing a “pause.”
In 1991, the National Institutes of Health began a study to assess morbidity and mortality (illness and death) in postmenopausal women. The study was called the Women’s Health Initiative Clinical Trial and Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study (WHI).
In 2002, WHI discovered a link between hormone replacement therapy and breast cancer risk, which caused many women to stop receiving hormone replacement therapy. Yet, in many cases, hormone replacement therapy has been the only effective treatment for bothersome menopausal symptoms.
Since then, more studies have looked at this topic from a broader perspective. This result suggests that the relationship between hormone replacement therapy and breast cancer risk is more subtle. In June 2017, the North American Menopause Society updated its guidelines for the use of hormone replacement therapy, stating that women under 60 years of age who have no other medical reason to avoid hormone replacement therapy, or within 10 years of postmenopause, will benefit from the use of hormone replacement therapy. said the risks outweighed the risks. When treating symptoms of menopause.
It is very important to know that women with a history of breast cancer should not receive hormone replacement therapy. I would like to add that women with a uterus should add progesterone replacement therapy to their estrogen therapy to prevent endometrial hyperplasia (thickening of the lining of the uterus), which can lead to uterine cancer. Therefore, the entire decision on hormone therapy requires careful consideration of who will do it, how it will be done, and for how long. A good doctor can help.
Hormone therapy, especially when used for a short period of time (about 5 years), can reduce symptoms of menopause, improve bone health, and help skin, heart, and sexual health. If you are suffering, we recommend talking to your doctor about your options.
Finally, I have to ask the big question. Why does menopause occur in the first place? Why should killer whales, some toothed whales, coral chimpanzees, and women suffer from this condition? Also known as the adaptive grandmother theory, reproduction occurs so that we can focus on the next generation. Is it time to give up the ability? Or is it some kind of evolutionary adaptation? In other words, does leaving reproduction to the young benefit the survival of the species? If so, why don’t we die sooner, like many other non-menopausal creatures? (Thank God we don’t!) Like many of my questions: We don’t really know the answer either.
When it comes to elephants, you’d have to agree with young Laurie rather than older Laurie. We are lucky that we are not elephants, and elephants don’t live much beyond their reproductive capacity. We enjoy the benefits of non-pregnancy, such as youth, but we are being turned inside out. Humans can enjoy life for many years beyond their reproductive capacity. Because even though the days of having babies are over and menopause is in full swing, there’s still plenty of good living to be done.
Chrisa Kuete of Duluth is a physician. Professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth Campus. A mother; a daughter; and a younger sister who works in internal medicine. She contributes to the News Tribune’s opinion pages.
