Menopause affects mood and this tragic health news update underlines the effect of the loss of hormones, especially in women. Menopause can cause irritability, depression and mood. It is now known that hormones must be replaced and it is much preferable that hormones be replaced with a bioidentical hormone replacement therapy because they are safer than synthetic hormones. Bioidentical hormones will remove the worst symptoms of menopause including hot flashes, sleep problems and mood issues. Bioidentical hormones can be prescribed by doctors who have special training in monitoring hormone levels at menopause.
This story comes from the BBC health news site.
Woman’s death blamed on menopause
A woman who refused to take hormone replacement therapy (HRT) died while suffering from a menopausal episode, an inquest has heard.
Margaret Drew from Hayle in Cornwall was killed when she walked out of her family home on to nearby railway line and was hit by a train.
The Truro inquest was told the 55-year-old had no history of depression or suicidal behaviour.
Cornwall Coroner Dr Emma Carlyon recorded an open verdict. The former secretary’s husband, Clifford Drew, said his wife had suffered from menopausal problems, including hot flushes and mood swings, for about five years.
Mr Drew said 99% of the time she was an “absolutely delightful, lovely and friendly lady”, but she would become depressed and angry during the mood swings, sometimes for a few days.
“When my wife was in one of those bad moods she was totally irrational and the only way to get over it was to give each other space,” he said.
He suggested his wife try HRT or homeopathic remedies, but she refused to have any treatment.
Mr Drew told the inquest when he returned from shopping on Friday 3 July, his wife was “clearly angry about something”.
He went into another room and, unknown to him, his wife left their home and wandered on to the railway tracks opposite Chapel Lane.
Train driver Stuart Bilby told the inquest Mrs Drew she was about 50ft in front of him when he saw her on the tracks.
She was looking down and walking along the sleepers, he said.
‘Nature’s way’
Mr Bilby said when he sounded the horn and applied the engine brake, Mrs Drew appeared “startled” and seemed to step out of the way. “I then heard a heavy, dull thud and I knew I had hit her,” he said.
The court heard Mrs Drew’s GP was unable to shed any light on her death as she had never attended surgery.
Mr Drew, a retired railway station manager, said he and his wife had discussed suicides on several occasions, because he had come across many instances in his long career.
“She always expressed the view that it was a selfish thing to do,” he said.
Recording an open verdict, Dr Carlyon said: “There’s often no reason for the menopause, it’s just the way nature doles it out really.”
The coroner said although it was “strange” Mrs Drew was on the railway line, the facts did not point to anything in particular.
“There is no trigger to this at all, except the hormones making her do things that she normally wouldn’t do,” Dr Carlyon concluded.
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Risk of abdominal aortic aneurysm is 8 times higher than in nonsmokers, study says
By Ed Edelson
Women who smoke are eight times more likely to suffer a potentially fatal rupture of the body’s largest artery, or require surgery to repair the weakening that can cause such a rupture, than nonsmokers.
That’s the conclusion of the latest data from the Women’s Health Initiative, the landmark trial most noted for the 2002 finding that hormone replacement therapy increases the risk of heart problems.
The new finding on the condition called abdominal aortic aneurysm comes from an analysis led by Dr. Frank Lederle, an internist at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Minneapolis and a professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota.
“My particular interest is abdominal aortic aneurysm,” Lederle said. “Most previous studies of it have been in men, so this is an opportunity to look at a very large study in women.”
The aorta is the main artery carrying blood from the heart. An aneurysm is a weakening or ballooning of the blood vessel, a process that can take years to develop, often without symptoms. Some 15,000 Americans die each year when an abdominal aortic aneurysm ruptures, 40 percent of them women.
The link between smoking and aneurysm was not unexpected, Lederle said. “No one would have expected otherwise,” he said. “There is a very strong association in men as well.”
It is a strong relationship. Even women who gave up smoking had a fourfold higher incidence of rupture than women who never smoked. What really interested Lederle was the finding that women with diabetes were less likely to have a rupture or surgery. It’s not at all clear why that should be so, he said.
“Diabetes makes the arteries stiff, so that might be protective,” Lederle said. “But other studies show that stiff arteries lead to abdominal aortic aneurysm. What we are going to need is a complete biochemical explanation.”
The new study, published online Oct. 15 in the British Medical Journal, also found that hormone replacement therapy reduced the risk of abdominal aortic aneurysm.
“We expected to see it, but the relationship was surprisingly strong,” Lederle said. “We certainly are not going to recommend that it [hormone replacement therapy] be used for that purpose.”
The various findings “are of interest to guide future research,” he added. “We would hope to develop a specific test for this condition.”
Dr. David G. Neschis, a vascular surgeon and an associate professor of surgery at the University of Maryland, said the biggest impact of the new study “will be to raise awareness about the importance of abdominal aortic aneurysm in women. The focus has been on men, and so, it is not screened for as frequently in women.”
“There are a huge number of undiagnosed aneurysms in women,” Neschis added. “Most now are identified as incidental findings, when a woman has a CT scan of the gall bladder or magnetic resonance imaging for back trouble. Perhaps women should be screened more aggressively.”
Screening is especially advisable for women who smoke, have high blood pressure or a family history of the condition, Neschis said. Age is also a factor, he said, since, “if you have it, it grows slowly over time.”
Source: www.caremark.com
