Tides in women: what to do and do you need to drink hormones?

Preparing for menopause in advance is useless, but in some cases, hormones are necessary for women even in the absence of hot flashes. Russian gynecologist Oksana Bogdashevskaya explained how to recognize the symptoms in time and return normal health, writes sb.by.

The fall in estrogen levels begins several years before the cessation of menstruation. Because of this, a woman can face changes that are easily mistaken for overwork.

The body begins to give signals in advance. Sleep becomes superficial, in the morning there is no feeling of recovery. There is fog in the head, forgetfulness, sharp mood swings and causeless anxiety. Few people understand that the true cause of this weakness is a decrease in estrogen levels, explains Oksana Bogdashevskaya. How to quickly relieve hot flashes without drugs hot flashes and night sweats occur due to estrogen deficiency - at this point the brain incorrectly assesses body temperature and turns on emergency cooling. To reduce their intensity on their own, the expert recommends:

Eliminate triggers: spicy spices, strong coffee, hot tea and alcohol dilate blood vessels and temporarily increase hot flashes.

Breathing practices: Slow and deep breaths at the very beginning of the tide help reduce its severity.

Proper wardrobe: clothes made of natural fabrics that can be easily unbuttoned or removed when the temperature changes.

Important: if hot flashes recur too often and disrupt sleep, you should consult a doctor. Menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) effectively returns normal health and protects blood vessels, but it is not necessary to take it for prevention or for the sake of combating natural aging.

- With the help of MHT, you can simulate the menstrual cycle, but hormones are not a pill of eternal youth, the expert notes. The main task of therapy is to restore the quality of life when menopausal symptoms become unbearable. If menopause has come about 50 years, while the woman feels great and does not suffer from hot flashes, you do not need to take hormonal drugs. Wrinkles and gray hair will still appear, since MHT does not stop the biological clock.

For the safe start of therapy, there is a so-called window of opportunity:

- There are two conditions for the safe start of therapy, the gynecologist emphasizes. A woman must be under 60 years of age, and less than 10 years have passed since her last menstruation. You can't start later. The body has already completely rebuilt by this point, and belated intervention increases the risk of cardiovascular complications. Mandatory stage: preparation and survey The appointment of MHT requires a careful and responsible approach. Before choosing a drug, a specialist necessarily conducts a thorough assessment of its safety.

- If the doctor at the first appointment, without any examination, prescribes you a hormonal drug - it is worth changing a specialist, the expert warns. - MHT is not a toy. First, it is necessary to carefully assess the safety: be sure to do mammography, ultrasound of the pelvic organs and pass a smear for oncocytology.

In this case, gels or patches (transdermal forms) often have a safety advantage over tablets, as they are absorbed through the skin to bypass the liver, which reduces the risks to the vessels. However, you can not use only estrogen gel - it is almost always necessary to add a second component to protect the endometrium. Sometimes a gynecologist may recommend MHT, even if a woman is not bothered by hot flashes and mood swings. The main goal in this case is the prevention of osteoporosis. Without estrogen, bone tissue rapidly loses calcium and becomes porous.

- Drugs help maintain bone density, notes Oksana Bogdashevskaya. Without estrogen, bones rapidly lose calcium. Their structure becomes so porous that a fracture can occur with minimal household load or falling from a height of its own height. We had a patient who simply moved a heavy pot of flower from one window sill to another and suffered a compression fracture of four vertebrae at once. The task of the doctor is to identify such women at risk in time at the stage of entering menopause.

The risk group for osteoporosis includes:

Women of fragile build (with a low body mass index).

Having bad habits such as smoking or alcohol.

Patients with concomitant diagnoses (diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis or long-term glucocorticoid intake). Popular dietary supplements and herbal collections can help only with mild malaise due to a mild soothing effect. With severe symptoms, phytoestrogens are ineffective.

- Today, hormone therapy has two main scientifically proven alternatives, explains Oksana Bogdashevskaya. First, these are certain groups of antidepressants (SSRIs / SSRIs). Secondly, it is the newest class of non-hormonal drugs - neurokinin-3 receptor antagonists (NK3), which act directly on the center of thermoregulation in the brain and effectively block hot flashes.

To tolerate severe symptoms that exhaust the nervous system and blood vessels is dangerous to health. If the quality of life is rapidly declining - you do not need to wait, contact a specialist for the selection of safe and evidence-based therapy.