Learn about Menopause Symptoms

Changes in menstrual cycles and hot flashes and are the typical symptoms of menopause according to Dr. T Scott Jennings.

What are the signs of menopause? T. Scott Jennings: Menopause is a condition that every woman would expect to go through a some point of her life if its all natural menopause its generally between the ages of 48 and 55 and the typical systems of menopause are really begin or and it really end with changes of menstrual cycling and so typically some pattern of change there are some change in the pattern that would be important to recognize other thing such as heart flashes which many woman experience are pretty unpredictable that tend to occur 10, 12 years before the menopause unfortunately be fairly unpredictable and that's really is the -- menopause is very simply a change in ovarian function that shuts down menstrual cycling and so it will be your predominant symptom. What are some ways to treat menopause without hormone replacement therapy? T. Scott Jennings: Menopausal symptoms are, its important to recognize who has them and how to manage them and its important to recognize in woman you know they are truly menopausal or not because it makes a huge difference how you handle these symptoms. Many woman start having heart flashes or other things they recognizes as menopausal symptoms but they are still having periods those are not the true menopausal symptoms you want to really working with hormones of any kind on that point in time. Heart flashes and anxiety can be frequently managed I think after the menopause with number -- another number of non hormonal preparations the most common one used in the United States are the red clover compounds, the black cohosh type compounds, vitamin E, and fairly substantial dose is pretty effective on certain woman. Some of the ginseng products have always thought to be pretty effective but they are really estrogen that could be their - right, there is an old data on the dark core type products being effective there is some risk related to their use as well. So the safe things to you use right now in woman is primarily red clover products, the black cohosh products and may be the vitamin E products. There are some other non hormonal medicines you can prescribe some work within certain situations, Clonidine is an old fashion medication for blood pressure which can help heart flashes you, Neurontin is a kind of neuroleptic with procedures it helps manage heart flashes in selected women as well. Frequently woman, unless they have breast cancer already are incredibly higher risk of breast cancer they need to look at menopausal symptoms based up on how long they have symptoms, how bad they are and how what their real risk are using an product, its not unreasonable in most woman to use a hormonal progestin for replacement therapy for six months to 18 months and just you have to do, they will probably feel considerably better the majority of the risk related to use of estrogen are not going to really occur in less a year of use, that's the reason we are using for short time, its how they do. Many woman menopausal symptoms are treated for year that's all they need. And they will come out quite quickly and get to back to the more maintain live cell also after a year or may be two. So for many woman there is a concern for using the non hormonal methods but there is also a concern for may be a short term uses are acceptable and safe and for most woman it probably is unless the longer term use, it becomes more questionable I think. Do you recommend these herbal treatments to your patients? Sure I think they are very effective for someone, so it's worth trying before you move on to a formal medication regimen for management of menopausal systems.