World Health Day: Let’s Talk About Access to Menopause Treatments

This World Health Day, a key global message we’re celebrating is ‘Health For All (which) envisions that people have good health for a fulfilling life in a peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable world’. At the Australian Menopause Centre, we see the crucial role of effective menopause treatments in giving women the support they need to enjoy good health throughout their menopause experiences. Not only can these treatments improve their overall health and wellbeing, but they also offer empowerment with the energy and peace required to find fulfilment each day.

In honour of World Health Day, we’re taking a deeper look at the importance of menopause treatments for Australian women.

Understanding menopause treatments

With a wide range of menopause treatments available to women, there’s no shortage of options for finding the right fit for your individual needs.

Menopause treatments are designed to alleviate both the physical and psychological symptoms that are associated with each stage of menopause. They fall into two categories: natural treatment options and body-identical hormone treatments.

Natural menopause treatment options

Natural remedies can include treatments like lifestyle modifications, supplements and a range of alternative therapies. These are often underestimated or misunderstood as a woman enters into perimenopause. By examining your daily routines and habits, you can build in natural menopause remedies that help to minimise the discomfort caused by menopausal symptoms.

Natural treatments can include:

• Regular exercise: a regular exercise schedule across an exercise form like walking, swimming or yoga can have a significant impact on your wellbeing throughout menopause, playing a key role in reducing menopause symptoms.
• A healthy, balanced diet: by fuelling your body with fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins and healthy fats, you can help to regulate your nutrition in the midst of ongoing hormonal changes.
• Stress management: meditation, deep breathing or mindfulness exercises can all help women to reduce stress and improve their mood in the midst of menopausal symptoms.
• Acupuncture: this form of alternative therapy can often help women to find relief from menopause symptoms, with acupuncture targeting specific points on the body to assist in pain relief.
• Massage therapy: therapeutic massages can help to reduce stress, promote relaxation and improve circulation, and give the body additional support throughout menopause’s varying stressors.
• Cooling products: well-placed fans, cooling pillows and air-conditioning can all become vital tools in the everyday management of menopause symptoms.

What are body-identical hormone treatments?

While these natural treatments can significantly improve the day-to-day management of menopause, body-identical hormone therapy can provide a level of relief that’s unmatched by natural remedies.

Body-identical hormone treatments involve the use of hormones that are structurally identical to those we naturally produce. Also known as hormone therapy or hormone replacement therapy (HRT), this form of treatment works to restore hormone balance, alleviating menopause symptoms through the supplementation of declining hormone levels.

Hormone treatments can be administered in various forms, including pills, patches, creams and gels. These treatments can be powerful tools in reducing symptoms, including hot flushes, night sweats and vaginal dryness, as well as reducing the risk of chronic illnesses or health issues developing as a result of menopausal changes.

We find many women feel exhausted when they reach out to us. They’ve tried all kinds of solutions without finding ongoing and effective relief for their menopause symptoms. In recent years, huge shifts in menopause research have recognised that body-identical hormone treatments are much safer than synthetic hormone treatments. That’s why we’re able to help women who haven’t found relief from other treatment forms, using industry-leading best practice treatments framed through a patient-centred lens.

Our years of combined medical experience help women to find genuine relief from their menopause symptoms through body-identical hormone treatments defined by the latest research findings.

How do menopause treatments impact physical health?

If you’ve already entered into perimenopause or menopause itself, you’ll be familiar with menopause’s impact on your physical health.

Menopause’s symptoms can have ongoing and detrimental impacts on the physical health and wellbeing of all women. As women transition through menopause, they experience hormonal fluctuations that can lead to various physical symptoms and health concerns. Not only can menopause be extremely physically uncomfortable, but when left untreated, these symptoms can cause complete disruption to your ability to engage with everyday life.

By using body-identical hormone treatments, women can benefit from:

• The alleviation of common menopause symptoms. Hormone treatments can be highly effective in reducing the frequency and severity of symptoms, including hot flushes, night sweats and vaginal dryness, delivering improved comfort and a higher quality of daily life.
• Supported bone health. Declining oestrogen levels during menopause can place women at an increased risk of developing osteoporosis. Hormone therapy can help to maintain bone density, reducing the risk and promoting positive bone health.
• Improved cardiovascular health. Alongside impacts on bone health, declining oestrogen levels can also lead to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Body-identical hormone treatments can lead to improvements in cardiovascular health by counteracting this decline.
• Improvements in sleep quality. Hot flushes and night sweats can make it almost impossible to get consistently high levels of good-quality sleep. By reducing the severity and intensity of these symptoms, women can benefit from greater sleep quality, improving their overall physical health.

How do menopause treatments impact mental and emotional health?

Alongside the physical benefits of menopause treatments, they can also provide powerful support for your mental and emotional health.

As hormonal fluctuations can result in mood swings, irritability, anxiety and depression, natural and body-identical hormone therapies alike can help to alleviate these symptoms. Through the stabilisation of hormone levels offered by hormone therapy, women are less likely to experience severe mood swings, and mild depression can also be alleviated for some women.

By addressing the mental and emotional impacts of menopause, these treatments can empower women to maintain a greater sense of control over their wellbeing, resulting in a higher quality of life throughout every stage of the menopause experience.

Conclusion

This World Health Day, let’s make sure we’re not missing out on the highest quality of support for our menopause journeys. Find a welcoming team of expert medical practitioners at the Australian Menopause Centre – simply contact us to learn how we can provide this support.