Menopause is the time in a woman’s life when her body starts to produce fewer reproductive hormones and she loses the ability to have children. It most often begins between the ages of 45 to 55 and comes with a variety of challenging symptoms, including hot flashes and mood changes. Here at Shenandoah Women’s Healthcare in Harrisonburg, VA, we offer menopause relief to anyone struggling with this life stage.
The symptoms related to menopause are varied, and every woman will experience them slightly differently. As a result, it can be hard to know when it’s time to contact a specialist and get relief. We always advise women to come to speak to us if the changes they experience disrupt their lives in a significant way or negatively affect their mental health.
What Are Signs You Need Menopause Relief?
Many women experience a wide range of symptoms related to menopause. They might suffer from hot flashes and night sweats, changes in their mood, a decrease in sexual wellbeing, and cosmetic issues such as wrinkling and dry skin. These changes are all normal, but they can be distressing and significantly disrupt daily life.
For this reason, it is often helpful to speak to an expert and figure out whether there are ways to counteract the most unmanageable issues. Relief comes in a variety of ways, depending on the exact problem, what other treatments you are currently undergoing, and your general health. Let’s have a closer look at when you should contact your OBGYN.
Your Hot Flashes Are Interfering with Your Life
Hot flashes happen when you suddenly start to feel warm for no reason. They can last for 1-5 minutes, and sometimes, they occur at night, in which case they are called night sweats. Some women might not experience these changes in temperature or only suffer from them once a week, while others might have a hot flash several times per hour.
Hot flashes and night sweats are nothing to be concerned about, and it’s normal for them to persist for several years. However, you should speak to your specialist if you’re worried about this symptom or it is interfering with your life. For instance, some women begin to feel tired and lethargic because they are regularly woken up by their night sweats. In such a situation, it could be worth speaking to your practitioners at the SWHC clinic and getting treatment.
You Have Mood Issues
Many menopausal women notice changes to their mood or more severe mood swings than before. These problems are caused by the change in the hormonal balance and are therefore normal. Unfortunately, they can be very disruptive to day-to-day life, especially for people who have suffered from anxiety or depression in the past.
If you’ve noticed that your mental health has deteriorated since the start of menopause, monitor the situation carefully. Don’t let the negative emotions persist for more than a few weeks because the longer you suffer, the harder it will be to recover from depression or anxiety. You deserve to feel happy, and a visit to your specialist could be the first step towards achieving a better balance.
Your Sexual Wellbeing Has Deteriorated
As we get older, our sexual function changes. For some women, this translates to a better sex life because they no longer have to worry about getting pregnant and they have more time and energy to dedicate to their partners. But many others no longer feel as much desire and pleasure, suffer from vaginal dryness, and struggle with urinary incontinence. All these issues can decrease sexual function and make it hard for women to enjoy intimacy.
Don’t delay speaking to your OBGYN if you’re worried about your intimate wellbeing. There are many ways of improving your health and getting you back to feeling great about sex. For instance, we can help you find solutions for vaginal dryness and show you how to train your pelvic floor muscles, which tightens the tissues around your vagina.
You Have Cosmetic Concerns
During the menopausal years, the majority of women experience changes to their appearance. Your hair might feel thinner and more brittle, you might gain weight that is harder to lose than it used to be, and you could experience dryer and more wrinkled skin. At the clinic, we can offer various ways of addressing these issues, either through traditional menopause relief or through our innovative cosmetic treatments.
In addition to offering OBGYN appointments, we also provide medical weight loss management and a range of treatments that aim to restore your natural beauty. You can speak to your provider about your cosmetic concerns, and they will recommend the most effective solutions for your issues.
What Treatments Might Be Recommended?
When you first visit the clinic, we will evaluate your symptoms to find out which treatments could be the best fit. In some cases, we might first recommend testing to make sure that menopause is the underlying cause of your problems. Then, we can suggest diet and exercise changes, hormone therapy, exercises that help you reduce urinary incontinence, and cosmetic treatments.
Testing
Most of the time, testing isn’t necessary to identify the symptoms of menopause. Your doctor will simply ask you about the changes you’re suffering from and examine you. But sometimes, we might propose running some tests to rule out any other causes and conditions. Fortunately, we have all the necessary tools right here at the clinic, so you won’t have to go somewhere else to have your lab work done.
Diet and Exercise Changes
Whenever possible, we try to avoid invasive or chemical treatments, so we will often begin by working with you to improve your diet and exercise routine. During menopause, it is especially important to include foods that improve your bone health, such as dairy products and green leafy vegetables, in your diet. This is because women become more prone to osteoporosis at this time.
Similarly, menopause relief can involve avoiding fatty or highly processed foods and exercising regularly. These are great ways of achieving a healthy weight. The years between 40 and 60 are the perfect time to work on this because the incidence of heart disease increases drastically in menopausal women. At the clinic, we can accompany you as you make the necessary changes and supplement your efforts with medical weight loss management if necessary.
Hormone Therapy
While lifestyle changes can help you achieve your target weight, they can’t address some of the other symptoms of menopause, such as hot flashes and mood swings. These are caused by hormonal changes. If you find it hard to manage your condition on your own, we may be able to help with hormone therapy. Your provider will speak to you about which types of hormones are most likely to relieve your symptoms and what this treatment entails.
Additional Treatments
In many cases, one method won’t be enough, and patients benefit from multiple approaches. If you suffer from urinary incontinence or changes to your sexual function, you might need to incorporate pelvic floor exercises or bladder training in your daily routine. These can help to tighten the muscles in your vaginal area, leading to better control and a more satisfying sex life.
Women who are worried about the changes to their appearance can benefit from some of our cosmetic treatments. We offer various methods of skin rejuvenation as well as dermal fillers, which can reduce the amount of wrinkling and sagging skin you experience. Your provider might also speak to you about your skincare routine to make sure you are taking optimal care of yourself. No matter what menopause treatment you need, we can help.
Get Relief for the Disruptive Symptoms of Menopause Now
Menopause can cause a range of symptoms, including hot flashes and night sweats, mood changes, reduced sexual wellness, and cosmetic concerns. The timing and severity of these issues is different for each woman, so it can be hard to figure out when to contact a specialist. As a general rule, we recommend that you come see us if you struggle to complete your day-to-day tasks or are worried about your mental health.
We can first make sure that menopause is the cause of your symptoms, then figure out a way to treat you. Menopause relief could include hormone therapy, diet and exercise changes, and other treatments that improve your sexual health and restore your appearance. Get in touch with us now at Shenandoah Women’s Healthcare in Harrisonburg, VA to book an initial appointment with one of our experts.