Pause the right way

In terms of the strength of the changes taking place in the body and in the perception of the world of changes, the menopause can only be compared with adolescence transitional age. Both modern science and traditional (naturopathic) ways of maintaining health give us different opportunities to make this part of life more complete, pleasant, harmonious.

Time for a change

Female sex hormones – estrogens and progesterone – in one way or another affect all organs: there are receptors for them in all body systems, including the brain, bones, vascular walls, heart. This is what all the changes are about. On average, after the age of 40, the amount of estrogen produced in a woman’s body begins to gradually decrease. Over the next 10 years, the menstrual cycle gradually changes, and at about the age of 52, menopause occurs – menstruation completely stops. These changes are very gradual, stretched out over time – ideally, the body has every opportunity to adapt to the changed hormonal status: from 10% to 30% of women do not feel any discomfort and feel good during all this time. However, most women endure this stage of life is not easy. What is the reason for this and how can these unpleasant consequences be minimized?

Overcome stereotypes

A negative attitude towards menopause and a whole set of cliches and terrible myths that surround it are associated with very ancient, archaic ideas about the value and role of a woman. After all, the main change associated with menopause is the loss of the ability to bear children. In women who, for one reason or another, never became mothers, menopause takes away the last hope of changing something. “Femininity and femininity as such are primarily associated with the attributes of motherhood, which is deeply rooted in women’s self-awareness,” says clinical psychologist Olga Shirokova. “This is especially typical for Russia, where the public consciousness has traditionally placed a different hypostasis – beloved, mistress – much lower, if not devalued at all.” In Russian villages, a woman who had passed her childbearing age took off her elegant kiku – a symbol of a married woman – and gave it to a young woman. “The feeling of shame in this situation arises quite naturally,” says Elena Smirnova, a psychoanalytic psychotherapist. – A woman seems to lose belonging to her gender, becomes “castrated”. That is, a woman ceases to be a woman. A feeling of inferiority, a decrease in self-esteem, a feeling of anxiety due to the inability to control your body and life plans as before – these experiences of a purely psychological nature contribute no less to our negative attitude towards menopause than its physiological aspects.

Ask for help

“Unfortunately, experiencing this serious test of their identity, our women rarely turn to a psychologist,” says Olga Shirokova. – A woman has to part with her former ideas about herself, let go of her youth and some of her opportunities that have gone away. This is a trauma, and the success of working through it depends to a large extent on the woman’s ability to adapt, on whether she is rooted in life, on the depth of her professional and other interests. Very often, the profession comes to the fore: a lot of experience has been accumulated, there is plenty of strength, the children no longer pull home. Only disbelief in one’s own strength and fear, which can and must be overcome, can seriously interfere.

In the West, the onset of menopause and the life changes associated with it are often in themselves the reasons for turning to a psychologist. “Women spend a third of their lives in postmenopause,” explains psychotherapist Boris Egorov. – And they want to live these years richly, interestingly, with taste. It happens that a woman simply does not notice menopause, she is so passionate about it. Someone writes a book, a dissertation, is busy with students, students. This is an example of a beautiful adjustment to a changed status. My clinical experience shows that women who have suffered from internal problems all their youth come to the need to solve them precisely in the pre- and menopausal period. And, having successfully worked through them, they finally find the inner harmony that they lacked so much.

Deal with depression

Strong psychological discomfort, extreme irritability are manifestations of the imbalance of the hypothalamic-pituitary system, one of the manifestations of the climacteric syndrome. The fact is that estrogens affect the electrical excitability of the brain and the transmission of nerve impulses. “With a drop in the level of female hormones, a functional deficiency of serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine is formed, which causes problems. Hysterical disorders come to the fore, depression and asthenic syndrome are in second place, – says Professor of the Department of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology of the Moscow Medical Academy. Sechenova Nina Tyuvina. “There are special preparations to cope with this, but many women simply do not realize that they can and should be helped, they come to us when life next to them becomes extremely difficult for their loved ones.”

Hormone harmony

Hormone therapy is another way to minimize some of the effects of menopause. In our country, hormone replacement and corrective therapy is only gaining recognition, while all over the world women have been resorting to it for decades to maintain activity and health. “According to studies that have been conducted over the past 30 years, the risk of myocardial infarction, cerebral stroke and coronary heart disease in women receiving hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is reduced by 35-50%,” says Zhenera Sahakyan, chief physician of the Institute of Binary Rejuvenation . “Bone loss is prevented and the risk of hip fracture due to osteoporosis is reduced by more than 50% over the next five years.” Preparations for hormone therapy can be divided into three large groups: herbal hormone-like agents, non-bioidentical analogs of natural hormones and bioidentical hormones that accurately reproduce the structure of natural hormones. These can be tablets, suppositories, creams, patches, subcutaneous implants. There are drugs that cause menstrual bleeding, and drugs that do not cause them. “The selection of drugs is a complex, delicate process,” Zhenera Sahakyan explains. – HRT means replacing the body’s natural hormones with hormones that are introduced from the outside – this is done only in menopause, when the production of its own hormones by the ovaries completely stops. In the premenopausal period and during menopause, when there are still own hormones, hormonal therapy is corrective (CHT). Hormones from the outside are added to the body’s own hormones – so much to reach the so-called physiological optimum, which is observed in a woman at 35 years old.

Contraindications for hormone therapy are estrogen-dependent malignant tumors, acute thromboembolic vein diseases, severe liver and kidney diseases.

natural alternative

Phytohormones or phytoestrogens are on everyone’s lips, meanwhile, few people understand how they actually work. These are special substances found in some plants that have a molecular shape similar to estrogen, which allows them to act on estrogen receptors in the body – for example, to compensate for bone loss associated with estrogen deficiency. Such substances are called selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs). The ideal combination of SERMs was found in the black cohosh plant (Cimicifuga racemosa), which has long been used in menopausal syndrome. “Data published by the EU Natural Medicine Research Committee show that the active ingredients of black cohosh relieve the psycho-vegetative symptoms of menopause as well as hormone replacement therapy,” says Dr. Gudrun Abel, Head of Research at Bionorica AG. – At the same time, as studies confirm, black cohosh does not stimulate the growth of estrogen-dependent tumors. This allowed us to create on its basis the phytopreparation Klimadinon, which helps to cope with hot flashes, sweating and sleep disorders.” In folk medicine, a number of plants with similar properties are described: oregano, red clover, alfalfa, hay fenugreek. Now they are waiting for a deeper study. The estrogen-like action of plant components is also used in cosmetology. The skin is also a hormone-dependent tissue, and estrogen deficiency affects its density and elasticity. One of the first products to maintain skin elasticity during hormonal changes was developed in the laboratories of Vichy. The active ingredient in Novadiol cream was isolated from soy, which, by the way, is also a raw material for the production of bioidentical artificial hormones used in HRT. In their new product NeOvadiol, Vichy specialists have managed to enhance the action of the soy phytocomplex with two other active ingredients that help maintain the structure of elastic fibers and subcutaneous fat. These are only the first attempts to overcome hormonal skin aging and preserve mature beauty – cosmetology laboratories continue their cooperation with gynecologists and endocrinologists in search of revolutionary solutions.