A Consultant Family Physician with a special interest in fertility medicine, Dr Moses Mafowosofo on Thursday said that lifestyle modifications could help women prevent the start of early menopause.
Mafowosofo, Co-Founder of M2 Specialist Hospital, gave the advice during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Thursday in Lagos.
Menopause describes the stage of a woman’s life when her menstrual periods stop permanently, and she can no longer get pregnant. Menopause is not a disease or disorder — it is a normal part of aging for women.
Mafowosofo noted that menopause was characterised by the cessation of menstrual periods for a period of 12 months, adding that, in some women, it usually occurred between 45 years and 55 years.
He said that menopause was a state in women when they no longer produced eggs that are needed for production of certain hormones to help them maintain their reproductive system.
The physician also said that lifestyle modifications were non-pharmacological or no medication measures, which include good exercise for about 150 minutes per week, avoiding smoking and reducing or stopping alcohol intake.
He counseled further that for lifestyle modifications, if one must drink, then such a woman should increase her physical activities.
“The reason for early menopause can not be ascertained, sometimes we do not know but sometimes it may be heredity.
“Another cause of early menopause is duplication of radiation from the parent to patient, especially for those that have had pelvic radiation.
“Experts have found out that body weight can also be implicated to be a risk factor for early menopause,” Mafowosofo said.
The expert said that the effect of menopause on women can be varied, adding that some patients might be asymptomatic which means that they don’t show any symptoms.
He described common symptoms of menopause in patient as hot flushes (feeling so hot even in a cool environment), sometimes they have mood swings, depression and some psychological problems.
However, the expert highlighted two coping mechanism to prevent early menopause – lifestyle modifications and medications.
“I have explained that lifestyle changes include exercise, good sleep and good diet among others.
“The second way, through medications, includes estrogen cream for patient with Atrophic Vaginitis (is a condition where the lining of the vagina gets drier and thinner).
“We can also use anti-depressants for patients with psychological symptoms as well as Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) to increase the hormones.,” he said
The fertility expert noted that patients could take hormone estrogen tablets to replace either low or no estrogen in the body, but it was always advocated that the HRT process should be done for a short period, not more than five years to seven years.
“Because if taken for too long, it can lead to possible cancer of the breast as well as cancer of the Uterus.
“It is very difficult to prevent early menopause, one can be lucky or it could just be delayed without knowing,” he said.
“However, some patients might do everything right and eventually find out that they have early menopause.
“However to have a better chance of delaying onstart of early menopause, I will advise women to go for lifestyle modifications,” the fertility expert insisted.
NAN
