Preventing Menopause Newsletter Volume 1, Issue 1

Text Box: Let’s start by not saying
menopause anymore. Menopause is a soft word to describe a very harsh condition. Medically, menopause is ovarian failure. When you think about menopause, you think about a normal condition. When you think about ovarian failure you think about organ failure.
When an organ fails
it takes with it all the good things it used to do for the body. The same thing happens with ovarian failure. Once the ovaries begin to fail all the illness that the ovaries once helped prevent begin to emerge like breast cancer and osteoporosis. As the ovaries finally fail the sex organs begin to shrink, lose sensitivity and the sexual response nose dives or is gone completely.
Ovarian failure
comes with increased fatigue, sleep problems and sexual problems, all things that can have a negative impact on a woman’s personal life and career. Menopause may sound normal but the reality is that ovarian failure is not.
But nobody told me
that ovarian failure is so unhealthy.

Text Box: Why is it that most doctors recommend not treating it? Doctors are not trained in medical school to treat normal conditions, and somehow ovarian failure has been dubbed normal. I believe the failure to treat ovarian failure is more cultural than medical. Again, medically speaking ovarian failure is a form of female castration and this is the way doctors refer to it. Yet, somehow it has become the norm to not treat ovarian failure. Not only are women not treated, they are actively counseled to embrace it like a rite of passage.
Ovarian Failure should be treated
because ovaries are not just reproductive organs. They are important organs that help to ensure good health and continued sexual response. Mainstream medicine recommends that a woman not seek treatment for ovarian failure. I want to change that. There is no medical reason not to treat any organ failure, including ovarian failure.
Lend Your Voice
I need your voice to change the current cultural and medical norm towards ovarian failure. Together we can do this.

Text Box: 1) The first thing we have to do is to stop saying menopause and instead talk to each other about ovarian failure.
2) Begin discussing it with your spouse, your daughters, your friends, and your doctor. Realize that by discussing it you are opening up a conversation which will open up further conversations. Once you open up, then you will begin to share your stories, begin to realize how much you have in common and how you can change the future for the better for ourselves, our daughters and our granddaughters.
3) Let the pharmaceutical companies know that you want better products to address ovarian failure. Also, let the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) know that you want accurate labeling on current products.
By working together, all people, men and women, healthcare professionals, the FDA, NIH and pharmaceutical companies can usher in a better and healthier future for all women.