Menopause Health Video

Video Transcript

DR. SUZANNE SLAYTON-MILAM: Hi, my name is Dr. Suzanne Slayton-Milam. I am a physician with Cascadia Women's Clinic in Vancouver, Washington. Today, I'm going to discuss briefly perimenopause and menopause. Some new definitions have arisen recently. The World Health Organization defines the perimenopausal period is a break in a women's regular menstrual cycles but not more than three months without a period. Because of confusion with the definition of perimenopause, The Stages of Reproductive Aging Workshop, also known as STRAW, has established its aging system for reproductive aging. The new term is "menopause transition." Early menopause transition is defined to begin when a women cycle becomes seven days greater than her normal cycle. For instance, if your cycles are 28 days, they have now progressed to 35 days. As cycles become more infrequent, the late menopause transition is characterized by two or more physical periods of at least one interval of no menses for 60 days or more. Menopausal transition is completed when one year has elapsed from the time of last menstrual period. At that time, a woman is then considered truly menopausal. Menopausal transition is thought to last 2 to 6 years; on the average, it last 4 years. Main onset age of perimenopausal transition is 47-1/2 years. During the transition period, menopausal symptoms may wax and wane. These symptoms include hot flashes, difficulty sleeping, moodiness, difficulty thinking, and fatigue. Over prolonged periods of time, one may develop vaginal dryness and irritation and sometimes bladder symptoms such as urgency may even occur. Perimenopausal women maybe treated with continuous hormone replacement therapy or cyclic hormone replacement therapy to cycle their menses. Women taking continuous hormones, meaning, both estrogen and progesterone every day may still have breakthrough bleeding. 66% of women stop bleeding by the time 1 year of therapy has elapsed. If the amount of bleeding is a problem or a nuisance, a woman may be treated with a lower dose of combination birth control pills. Contraindications to birth control pills in this time period are women who....