Women’s Health and Menopause Conference

As many of you know, Dr. Jensen was out of town this last month at the Women’s Health and Menopause conference sponsored by Harvard’s medical school and Mass General Brigham. It was an amazing conference. Dr. Jensen has spent over a year studying the perimenopause and menopause transition, and is humble to report that the majority of the conference was review. In this short email series, we’ll break up the most important discussions from the conference in an easy-to-understand format.

Leaders in women’s mid-life care were present. Some names you may recognize are:

Kelly Casperson, MD, MSCP
Rachel Rubin, MD, IF, MSCP
Heather Hirsch, MD, MS, NCMP
Vonda Wright, MD, MS, FAOA
Avrum Bluming, MD
André Vinicius, MD, MS
Melinda Ring, MD, FACP, ABOIM
Corinne Menn, DO, FACOG, MSCP
Elise De, MD

For context, women and men are living longer than they have in centuries. In 1900, the average life expectancy for a female was 48 years old. Today, the average is 81. With the knowledge that menopause occurs at ages 51-52, we are now living decades past our reproductive lifespan without essential hormones. Bone loss is the most profound in the 2 years leading up to menopause. Peak muscle mass usually occurs around age 28 and declines from there. In perimenopause, progesterone and testosterone steadily decrease while estrogen is highly volatile before “crashing out” the rest of the way at the time of menopause.

The obvious symptoms:
⁃ Hot flushes

The less obvious:
⁃ Brain fog
⁃ Palpitations
⁃ Panicked feelings
⁃ Weight redistribution to the midsection
⁃ Stiff/ frozen shoulder
⁃ Menses are closer together and heavier before they space out
⁃ Hair loss
⁃ Libido changes
⁃ Tossing and turning in the middle of the night