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Preventing Menopause:
More than Continuing Menstruation

Making menopause, or more accurately, ovarian failure, optional would change life for women as we now know it. No longer would women simply accept menopause as a natural and normal event to adjust to. Rather they would have a choice between undergoing the upheavals and disruptions of menopause or foregoing them. Gone would be the days that menopause would disrupt careers, families and a woman’s physical and emotional well-being. Making menopause optional would mean that women would have an additional 2 to 3 decades of ovarian function. The option of a lifetime of ovarian function raises very important questions. How would women benefit? Are there any health risks? Wouldn’t older women be at risk of getting pregnant? Is it even feasible? Would it be worth it?

Let’s start with the first question, how would women benefit? Without question, women are healthier while they have ovarian function. The ovaries influence every organ system in women’s bodies and when they stop working, our bodies suffer. Studies on women who have experienced ovarian failure (menopause) before age 40 have increased rates of sexual dysfunction, heart disease, arthritis, osteoporosis and decreased quality of life. We don’t need further medical debate to know that women are better off with functional ovaries.

Now, on to other questions. Are there any health risks to prolonging ovarian function or to the treatments that would enable the prevention of menopause? Menopause can be prevented by ensuring that the ovaries continue to have what they need to function at their best, what a woman’s body produces naturally before ovarian failure. Following ovarian failure only poorer health occurs, not the other way around. Giving the ovaries what they need allows the ovaries to function well until they run out of eggs. Rather than causing any health risks, preventing menopause actually reduces them. Future topics will show the many different health benefits a woman receives by preventing menopause. Ovarian failure is organ failure. It should be treated like any other organ failure. It makes perfect sense to help the ovaries work their best for as long as possible. It just makes sense to make menopause optional.

Would an older woman be at risk of getting pregnant? The answer is yes and no. Yes, it would be possible, but appropriate birth control could certainly be developed to not allow it to happen. Over the coming months you will learn about how current birth control works and fails and how more intelligent, less profit driven, yet very effective forms of birth control can be developed. Fear of pregnancy should not be a reason to endure menopause and the health risks associated with it.

Would it maintain a woman’s quality of life? Considering the disruptions caused by menopause, the alternatives look pretty rosy. Becoming castrated puts an enormous and unnecessary strain on a woman’s physical and emotional reserves. At a time in their lives when most women need all the inner strength they can muster to see children off to college, as well as top earning power for career advancement, women are least equipped to handle additional stress. There’s simply no reason for this. By prolonging ovarian function, they could stay at the top of their game.

Is it even feasible? The answer is yes. I have done extensive research into ovarian function and the truth is, taking care of our ovaries is no different from taking care of our teeth, our heart or any other part of our bodies; we simply need the tools to do it. I also see that it will take women and men from many different walks of life to make it a reality. It will require the availability of the right pharmaceuticals and the right medical specialists. Women who start early, in their twenties and early thirties, can be treated fairly easily; older women who have already used up most of their eggs will need the help of pharmaceutical companies and innovative, convenient products to help balance their ovarian function. It will take a collaborative effort to make this happen, much like the effort needed to help women get the right to vote almost 100 years ago. But there is no doubt that making menopause optional will make healthcare cheaper, improve a woman’s quality of life, and improve her opportunities for career growth.

In the coming months I will be discussing how we can work together to make this happen for ourselves, our daughters and our granddaughters.

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