The embarrassing hidden symptoms of menopause

…From prolapse to incontinence, experts reveal the unspoken but distressing realities HALF of all women face. …Some women also experience incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse. But 33% of women suffering these problems don’t seek help, experts say Angelina Jolie has been outspoken about going through early menopause Hot flashes, mood swings and no desire to […]

…From prolapse to incontinence, experts reveal the unspoken but distressing realities HALF of all women face.
…Some women also experience incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse. But 33% of women suffering these problems don’t seek help, experts say Angelina Jolie has been outspoken about going through early menopause

Hot flashes, mood swings and no desire to have sex – all are common symptoms of the menopause.
It is a stage in life that the majority of women dread, it signalling the end of their reproductive years.
But, a new piece of research has shed light on how more than half of women who go through the change, secretly grapple with an embarrassing set of symptoms rarely discussed. 
Researchers from Dartmouth, Yale and Connecticut Healthcare Symptoms found that 51 per cent of post-menopausal women deal with vaginal and vulvar problems.
Those problems include itching, burning, pain, discharge or odor.
While others suffer from problems with urinary frequency, fecal incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse as well.
Despite the severity of the symptoms, researchers warn the majority of women do not seek the medical help they need.
Forget hot flashes – researchers say menopause can cause far more severe symptoms. A new study found that 51 per cent of women have vulvovaginal problems, while others have incontinence and  prolapse
Forget hot flashes – researchers say menopause can cause far more severe symptoms. A new study found that 51 per cent of women have vulvovaginal problems, while others have incontinence and prolapse
Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie, recently spoke out about her experiences of the menopause.
The mother-of-six has spoken extensively of the changes she’s experienced since a surgery to have her ovaries removed brought on early menopause.
The actress underwent the radical surgery – two years following a double mastectomy – after learning she had an increased risk of cancer due to a defective BRCA1 gene.
In a recent Today Show interview with her husband Brad Pitt, the star said: ‘Every woman is different when they go through menopause, and… I didn’t know emotionally how I would feel.
‘I knew the breast would be a bigger surgery and physically changing.
‘The ovaries is more, your hormones changing and your emotions changing, but it’s different. You feel different.’
Women need to tell their healthcare providers about their genitourinary symptoms, and providers need to ask
Dr JoAnn V. Pinkerton, of The North American Menopause Society
The study revealed that more than half of women who go through menopause have vulvovaginal symptoms that may have an impact on their lifestyle, emotions and sex life.
Doctors refer to those postmenopausal problems as ‘genitourinary syndrome of menopause’.
Researchers surveyed 358 women over the age of 55 from primary care offices and senior centers.
More than half – 51 per cent – of the woman reported having vaginal and vulvar symptoms.
Of that group, 40 per cent said the symptoms caused emotional problems and 33 per cent said they had an impact on their lifestyle.
Over three quarters of those women – 76 per cent – said the vaginal and vulvar symptoms posed problems in their sex lives as well.
Researchers also found that 50 per cent of women who had those symptoms also had urinary frequency, with 43 per cent reporting leakage from urinary urgency.
Many more women with the vulvovaginal symptoms than without also had pelvic organ prolapse or fecal incontinence without diarrhea.
But despite the severity of these problems, 33 per cent of women with these symptoms had not seen a gynecologist in the last two years.
Dr JoAnn V. Pinkerton, executive director of The North American Menopause Society, said: ‘Women need to tell their healthcare providers about their genitourinary symptoms, and providers need to ask.’
Moreover, 83 per cent were not getting the standard treatments for genitourinary syndrome of menopause – which is low-dose estrogen in the vagina through creams pills or rings.
The boxed warnings on those low-dose intravaginal estrogen therapies may have made providers reluctant to prescribe them.
Dr Pinkerton said: ‘The boxed warnings prompt a level of fear that is out of step with these low-dose, local estrogen products.’
Experts have urged the Federal Drug Administration to remove the warning from the label.
They argue it is the role of the doctor to exercise caution and evaluate the uterus if women develop bleeding.
Providers should also advise women to discuss the use of the low-dose intravaginal estrogen with their oncologist if they have cancer.
The study will be published in the April 2016 edition of the journal Menopause.

Culled from mailonline.co.uk