Consultancy on Menopause Management

Menopause is a natural biological process, when your ovaries stop producing estrogen. It is diagnosed after not having your menstrual period for twelve months, normally in your late 40s or 50s.

Menopause Clinic is composed of a multidisciplinary team that assesses and treats all stages of menopause, developing personalised care plans that best suit your needs. The team is led by our internal medicine and gynaecology consultants, supported by experienced nurses, dieticians and psychologists. They work very closely with breast surgery, rheumatology and urogynaecology consultants that provide sub-specialised care in their areas of expertise.

Menopause Symptoms

Menopause can be natural or driven by surgical removal of ovaries for medical reasons. The natural menopause process is staged in three phases:

• Perimenopause: It usually starts in a woman's 40s and lasts until menopause. During perimenopause, many women may experience menopause symptoms, although they are still having menstrual cycles and can get pregnant
• Menopause: It is the point when a woman no longer has menstrual periods for twelve consecutive months. This is the period when symptoms are mostly manifested
• Postmenopause: The phase after a woman has not had her menstrual period for a year. Some women continue experiencing menopausal symptoms. More important in this stage is that, as a result of a lower level of estrogen, women are at increased risk for a number of health conditions, such as osteoporosis and heart disease

Treatment

Menopause treatments focus on relieving your symptoms and preventing or managing related, sometimes chronic, conditions that may occur during post-menopause. Treatments may include:

• Lifestyle counselling, focused on nutrition, physical exercise, pelvic floor education, healthy sleep, mental wellbeing and sexual health
• Hormone therapy, different treatments are available, and your doctor will advice which one is recommended for you
• Low-dose antidepressants, that help emotional wellbeing and hot flushes
• Non-hormonal medications, for specific symptoms or when hormone therapy is not possible
• Specific risk factor medications, depending on individual needs, doctors may recommend medication to prevent or treat specific conditions such as osteoporosis, blood pressure, etc.