Welcome to a site that is All About Women’s Health. Men are different than women and viva la difference. However, differences in basic biology become medically important in the pathology and treatment of disease. For instance:
- Men and women display different symptoms of heart attack. Chest pain is most common in men while women’s symptoms are more subtle, often being generalized fatique, abdominal pain and nausea.
- Women with irritable bowel syndrome will respond better to a serotonin receptor antagonist than men.
- Ibuprofen, as a pain reliever, is not as effective in women as in men.
- Nicotine replacement therapy is more effective in men than women.
- Women metabolize alcohol more slowly than men because they make less gastric alcohol dehydrogenase. Therefore, less alcohol intake is required in women to reach the same blood alcohol level.
- Some language functions are active in both sides of a woman’s brain but only in one hemisphere in men.
- Women experience depression two to three times more often than men, which may be due, in part, to a much lower rate of serotonin synthesis in women.
- A new herpes virus vaccine is ineffective in men but works in some women.
We have assembled information on topics that are of great interest to women and those who love them.
Information on Managing Menopause
Between the ages of 48 and 55 years most women experience changes to their body that can be associated with menopause, which is literally the very last menstrual period in a woman’s life.
Menopause may be part of a number of adjustments that women experience at midlife. At the same time a woman is beginning to experience signs and symptoms of menopause, she is usually approaching her fifties. Managing menopause can take place amidst changing family roles, looking after aging parents, thinking about retirement and wondering what she will do with the rest of her life.
For some women however, menopause may occur at an earlier age. Early menopause (also known as premature menopause) affects almost 10 per cent of women under the age of forty – with some being diagnosed in their twenties, or even their late teens. Surgical menopause is when the ovaries are removed at surgery prior to natural menopause, (also known as oophorectomy).
Definition of Menopause
- Menopause is a natural event that is said to have occurred when a woman has not menstruated naturally for 12 consecutive months.
- Menopause usually occurs between the ages of 48 and 55.
- Among Australian women, the average age is about 51 to 52 years.
- A few women experience menopause much earlier and others may still be menstruating in their late fifties.
WISDOM: HT beyond menopause
Following confirmatory studies, women have again been advised not to start hormone therapy in their older age, many years beyond menopause. Another large study to report on hormone therapy use in older women, the WISDOM study published 12 July, has confirmed that combined oestrogen and progestin results in a small increase in the risk of heart attacks and blood clots.