I chose to interview a woman going through menopause about taking hormones.
The woman that I interviewed was taking hormones and then when the WHI study came out she quit taking them. Once she quit, she couldn’t deal with the symptoms and decided to get back on them. When she didn’t take hormones, she had these symptoms:
- When she has a hot flash, she starts feeling nauseous and feels like her heart is racing. Then she feels like she can’t breathe and starts getting very hot. It interrupts whatever she is doing at the time, and it keeps her from sleeping well.
- Vaginal dryness causes intercourse to be painful and she has no libido.
- She felt that when all of the symptoms of menopause start happening, it feels like you lose your personality. She is distracted by hot flashes, because she has so many of them. She said that if someone touches her, she feels like she is going to have a hot flash so she can’t snuggle with her husband at night.
She decided that she would take hormones even though they do have risks because the symptoms of menopause are not worth the disruption of your whole life.
Picture retrieved from: http://media.photobucket.com/image/menopause/sherma_photos/WOMEN/menapause.jpg?o=143
Picture retrieved from: http://media.photobucket.com/image/menopause/sherma_photos/WOMEN/menapause.jpg?o=143
Meghan McGehee
I appreciated your introduction with the cartoon to a difficult subject; it allows the reader to relax and be open to the topic. The decision to use HRT is a difficult one. Choosing to relieve symptoms while possibly increasing the risk of serious disease is one that should be made with proper knowledge. It is improtant for health care providers to make sure women entering menopause are informed about their condition, the available treatments, and the posibly sideeffcts of treatmenr.
ReplyDeleteMeghan,
ReplyDeleteIt is very interesting to know as women how beautiful we are in our own way. Although we are all women, your interview found that we do not necessary feel the same way. We all experience different things in different ways just like pregnancies, as mothers, and of course when we go through menopause. I know many woman dread the menopause phase because of all the hormonal changes we go through but like a pregnancy, it is only temporary and nothing remains that way forever. It is simply just another phases in the journey of life and we can just simply use everyday herbal treatments or take advantage of what the pharmaceuticals have to offer to overcome all these challenges. Great work!
Dana Anderson