Menopause typically starts around the age of 50. Up to 12% of women globally begin menopause between the ages of 40 to 44. Another 2% to 4% of women start menopause even earlier, before the age of 40, and it is dubbed as premature ovarian insufficiency.
Women’s experience of menopause varies hugely, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach to management, the series added.
While many women transition to this stage of life uneventfully, some experience prolonged or severe symptoms and need information, support, or medical treatment.
The most common symptoms associated with menopause include vasomotor symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats, sleep disturbances, vaginal dryness, and muscle and joint pain.
“But over-medicalisation of menopause and promotion of MHT as a panacea is unhelpful and only serves to divide opinions further. It is time for a sensible conversation about menopause to enable informed, individualised decision-making on optimal management of this transition,” it added.
It said that menopause can also be a time for women to reassess their identities, to embrace this next phase in their lives and the freedom from menstruation and menstrual pain, and to challenge negative perceptions of older women, which are prevalent in some societies.
“We need to send a realistic, balanced message to women and society: menopause does not herald the start of a period of decay and decline but is a developmental life stage that can be negotiated successfully with access to evidence-based information as well as appropriate social and medical support. Women deserve nothing less,” the researchers said.
“The misconception of menopause as always being a medical issue which consistently heralds a decline in physical and mental health should be challenged across the whole of society,” said the series lead author, Prof. Martha Hickey, University of Melbourne and Royal Women’s Hospital, Australia.
