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A warning for American women aged 45-65; menopause is not a joke.
Scientists are realizing that the signature hot flashes that women go through are not just a minor inconvenience for them (and their partners suffering from cold rooms), but can actually lead to serious mental decline and even heart attacks.
Are you at risk, and if so, when should you talk to your doctor about this?
It’s estimated that over 40 million women in America alone are going through menopause, which is basically your body telling you that it’s over its child-bearing years. The ovaries stop producing hormones, and menstrual cycles end.
Side effects of going through menopause vary wildly from woman-to-woman but include hot flashes, sleep disturbances, night sweats, fatigue, and more.
The hot flashes are the real concern, scientists are discovering.
At the 2019 conference of the Normal American Menopause Society (this is a real thing) a study was presented that has changed the way women will look at their menopause symptoms forever.
Night sweats, something that many people associate with just hot flashes, was suggested to have a link to decreasing cognitive function. Women who frequently suffered from night sweats were less able to perform higher-level thinking tasks or pay attention for long periods of time.
The real concern, however, was heart health – scientists noted that there is a link between women who experience frequent or severe hot flashes and women who experience major cardiac episodes later in life.
This study started in 1996 and looked at over 3,000 women as they made their menopause journey. The majority of these women were pre-menopausal or in the very early stages of menopause, and the study looked at not just how menopause affected them in the obvious ways, but how they continued to be affected going through the rest of their lives.
The study determined that even when factors like smoking, obesity, and high blood pressure were ruled out – all common risk factors for cardiac health issues – it still appeared that women who experienced frequent and severe hot flashes were at a higher risk.
The higher risk? Terrifying. The study suggests that these women have up to an 80% greater risk of major cardiac episodes over the course of the 20 years during and after menopause first starts.
Scientists offered few options when presenting their findings, but there are some options for you if you’re at risk.
If you are going through menopause and experiencing severe night sweats, hot flashes, or other symptoms, hormone therapy to ease your body into the transition has been shown to help many women struggling.
There is no promise that this hormone therapy will help reduce your risk for heart issues – at least, not at this time – because scientists still aren’t sure if the hot flashes themselves are the issue, or if it is just a symptom. But there is some indication that it could help if implemented early enough in the body’s transition.
Other options include low doses of antidepressants, a specific antiseizure medication, and a type of blood pressure medication have all been shown to help. Speaking with your doctor about your options is the best first step to preventing these hot flashes from causing larger problems later on.
