Menopause

Bleeding after menopause or "postmenopausal bleeding" ("PMB") can be defined as the resumption of vaginal bleeding at least 6 months after a woman experiences her last menstrual period. This assumes of course that she is indeed menopausal ie. in her late 40's, perhaps having hot flashes and night sweats, mood swings, insomnia, perhaps experiencing some vaginal dryness.

Does hysterectomy mean a woman's sex life is ruined? Here, Paul Indman, MD, shares his take: orgasm is still in the cards for many women.

Despite the major public health impact of leiomyomas, little is known about their cause. Until recently, the steroid hormones estrogen and progesterone were considered the most important regulators of leiomyoma growth. There is abundant evidence that estrogen promotes fibroid growth including the clinical observations that fibroids grow in the presence of high levels of estrogen, such as during the reproductive years, and that they regress in the presence of low levels of estrogen, such as following menopause or during gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) agonist therapy.

Hormone Replacement Therapy: In most European countries, the actual Guideline on the Evaluation of New Medicinal Products in the Treatment of Primary Osteoporosis is incomplete in that, unlike the previous Note for Guidance on Postmenopausal Osteoporosis in Women (EMEA 2001 Guidance), it fails to address the prevention of osteoporosis indication.

The world of menopausal care is changing. For many years, the scientific community involved in menopause research has been amassing evidence that the menopause is associated with multiple complaints and chronic diseases, and that postmenopausal hormone therapy has the potential to prevent or treat most of them.

Steroid hormones have a typical chemical structure. Their mechanism of action is through binding to a specific receptor which in the nucleus of the cell will induce effects at the genomic level.

Hormonal changes associated with menopause do not increase a woman’s risk for heart disease and heart disease mortality, according to new research published in BMJ. The work of Dr Dhananjay Vaidya, assistant professor of medicine at John Hopkins School of Medicine, and colleagues contradict the previously hypothesis that heart disease and heart attacks rise dramatically after menopause.

A new study provides a real-world snapshot of risks associated with venous thromboembolism in women receiving hormone replacement therapy, demonstrating that women who use an estradiol transdermal system may have less risk of developing thromboembolism than their counterparts who receive oral estrogen-only hormone therapy agents.

Pfizer Inc. reports that it has received a "complete response letter" from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) denying its application to approve desvenlafaxine (Pristiq) for moderate to severe vasomotor symptoms of menopause such as hot flashes.

A recent study on sleep disturbances in menopause shows a direct connection to the use of hormone therapy. Specifically, when women stop taking hormone therapy they experienced greater periods of poor sleep, waking up during the night, difficulty falling asleep, waking up to early and not feeling rested.

According to results from a new study, a popular herbal remedy may come to the rescue of women suffering from postmenopausal sleep disturbances. About half of postmenopausal women experience some degree of sleep disturbance, which in turn impacts their quality of life.

Cessation of hormone therapy in menopausal women may result in sleep disturbances, according to a new study in Menopause. Since the hormone therapy has been associated with the alleviation of sleep problems in women experiencing menopausal symptoms, Dr Sarah E Tom, Interdisciplinary Women’s Health Research (IWHR) Scholar at the University of Texas Medical School, and colleagues sought to determine the resulting sleep effects during cessation of hormone therapy.

With the rate of diabetes and prediabetes/glucose intolerance increasing, it is imperative for clinicians to help reduce the risk of their patients developing full-blown diabetes as well as to help patients manage the illness.