Attitudes to menopausePositive attitudes to menopause and ageing have been linked with fewer menopausal symptoms, as have education and income level, occupational status, cultural background, and dietary and genetic characteristics. Japanese women are often cited as a shining example of a group with positive attitudes to menopause - women who are much less likely to report symptoms such as hot flushes than their middle-aged sisters in the West. To attribute their low incidence of symptoms to their positive views of menopause is an oversimplification, however, since there would appear to be many other contributory factors. For instance, Japanese women tend to have lower oestrogen levels than Western women both before and after menopause (apparently due to dietary and genetic influences), and their hormone level changes may be less acute and therefore less troublesome. Early results of the Melbourne Women's Midlife Health Study suggest that most women aged forty-five to fifty-five and born in Australia are quite positive about menopause and ageing in general. Most of the 2000 randomly selected women who were questioned were not worried about being too old to have children. Two-thirds were not concerned about their children leaving home, nor were the majority anxious that their attractiveness was waning. About half thought that some women became depressed or irritable in midlife, but most believed that the transition was hardly noticed by women with many interests. Only 9 per cent of these women rated their health as worse than that of other women of the same age. Over 90 per cent experienced some symptoms of ill health, particularly generalised aches and stiff joints, lack of energy, nervous tension, headaches and migraines. But most women regarded these as relatively minor concerns. A comparable US study, which followed for five years the wellbeing of more than 2000 middle-aged Massachusetts women selected at random from the general population, came up with interesting findings on the pattern of such symptoms over time. On the one hand, lack of energy, feeling blue or depressed, headaches and menstrual problems were reported much less often at the end of the five years than at the beginning. The reverse was true for hot flushes and cold sweats, which were reported nearly twice as often. *15\38\8* Hormonal «Prescription Medications» |
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