The road to healthy menopause Yu Qi

The core intervention idea of ​​Professor Yu Qi from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Peking Union Medical College Hospital, a recognized authority in the field of menopause management in China, is to break the misunderstanding that "menopause can only be endured". With "layered individualized intervention during the window period" as the core, it combines the treatment of menopausal discomfort with the prevention of chronic diseases in middle-aged and elderly people. It is a menopausal health plan that has been clinically verified and adapted to the vast majority of Chinese women.

Last week, I accompanied my 49-year-old aunt to Xiehe to see Professor Yu Qi for treatment. She has been suffering from hot flashes for almost two years: she has hot flashes more than a dozen times a day. She has to open the window at home in winter. She is so sweaty that half her pajamas are wet when she wakes up. She couldn't sleep either. She had an argument with her uncle over a trivial matter a while ago and threw half a stack of bowls at home. Her relatives thought she was "old and grumpy." She went to a Chinese doctor and took kidney-tonifying prescriptions for half a year, but it was of no use at all.

As soon as she sat down in the consulting room, Professor Yu Qi glanced at the six hormone reports she had brought with her, and the first sentence she said was: "It's not that you have a bad temper, it's the fluctuation of estrogen that's sending you signals. No one is telling you to endure it." ”

Interestingly, regarding whether to intervene in menopause, the views in different fields are quite different until now: the older generation always say "just three to five years, get over it and that's it", there is no need to take medicine and bother； Many schools of traditional Chinese medicine believe that menopause is caused by kidney qi deficiency and qi and blood deficiency. It focuses on regulating and nourishing the body, giving priority to the use of gentle methods such as herbs and acupuncture. ； There is also a conservative view in Western medicine, which believes that as long as the symptoms do not affect normal life, hormones can be used without them to reduce potential risks.

As the leader of the Menopause Study Group of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Branch of the Chinese Medical Association, Yu Qi's thinking is just stuck on the balance point of these views, and it is not at all the "let people take hormones as soon as they come up" posted on the Internet. His first suggestion to his aunt that day was not to prescribe medicine at all. He asked her to change the velvet thermal clothes she was wearing into a layered pure cotton cardigan, carry a small spray bottle in her bag, and spray it twice on her face when she had hot flashes. It was more effective than hiding in an air-conditioned room all day long. Then he asked her if she took melatonin every day to help her sleep, and she immediately stopped: "Melatonin is for people with jet lag. Your insomnia is caused by estrogen fluctuations. Taking too much will disrupt endocrine system." ”

As for the cancer-causing controversy of menopausal hormone therapy (MHT), which everyone is most concerned about, he did not give an absolute "good or bad" conclusion, but let the data speak: current global clinical studies have confirmed that as long as natural estrogen and progesterone are used within 10 years of menopause and before the age of 60 during the "intervention window period", the long-term risk of breast cancer is lower than drinking two taels of white wine a day. On the contrary, it can reduce the incidence of osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease, laying the foundation for health in the following decades. However, if you have a family history of breast cancer or already have abnormal endometrial hyperplasia, it is definitely not recommended. Choose non-hormonal plant preparations such as black cohosh extract, which can also relieve 80% of hot flash symptoms.

My mother used to have a colleague who suffered from waist and leg pain for almost a year after menopause at the age of 52. She took three large boxes of calcium tablets and aminoglycosides. The bone density was already at the critical value of osteoporosis. After seeing Yu Qi, she added a small dose of estrogen. After six months of follow-up, the bone density returned to the normal range, and she no longer had to wear plaster every day to go out for a walk. There is also a friend whose mother has uterine fibroids of 3 cm and does not want to take hormones. Yu Qi prescribed non-hormonal drugs that regulate neurotransmitters, coupled with half-an-hour brisk walking three times a week. Now the hot flashes are basically gone and her sleep is stable.

He also complained to us in the outpatient clinic that there are many online sellers of "ovary maintenance essential oil" and "sky-high-priced soy isoflavones", all of which charge IQ taxes: the ovaries are deep in the pelvic cavity, and you can't touch them when you press the belly. The so-called massages are all about rubbing the belly to make it hot, which is useless. The activity of soy isoflavones is only one thousandth of that of human estrogen. If you are just a little irritable occasionally and have mild symptoms, it is okay to take it as a placebo. If you have hot flashes that make you unable to go to work and cannot sleep all night, taking it is a waste of money.

My aunt has been intervening for almost three months now. Last week she told me via video that she now only gets hot flashes every two or three days and can sleep for six hours if she touches the pillow. She also signed up for a cheongsam catwalk class last week and no longer quarrels with her uncle. In fact, many people are afraid of menopause. The essence is that they are afraid of the label of "aging". Even they feel that these discomforts are "something you should endure when you are older", and instead miss the best time to adjust. There are no hurdles that you have to go through. Find the right method that suits you. Menopause is obviously the beginning of a comfortable life for the rest of your life.