Better informing of the consequences, improving medical care, initiating the training of health professionals, the Renaissance MP for Loiret Stéphanie Rist has just been charged with a mission to try to lift the taboo of menopause.
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Menopause is experienced in silence at least in the early stages. It’s impossible to complain of hot flashes or night sweats like you would report a headache. There end of hormone production marks the beginning of aging for women. Who would like to shout it from the rooftops?
However, menopause has consequences for family and professional life. “Sometimes women refuse promotions or even ask to retire early for this reason.” explains Stéphanie Rist.
The subject remains taboo, little known as well as ignored. “One of the objectives of my mission is to find ways to better inform both women and men about this major change in life.”.
Doctors’ reluctance to prescribe HRT
Menopause causes cardiovascular problems, it reduces bone mass and causes osteoporosis, promotes mood disorders and depression. 14 million women would be affected in France even if not all are affected with the same intensity.
However, there is an alternative: hormone replacement therapy. HRT provides support load that the medical community is still hesitant to prescribe. “There is a reluctance, it’s true, to give this treatment” explains radiologist and president of the Regional Order of Physicians Patrick Petit.
“In the 2000s, an American study established a causality between taking HRT and the development of breast cancer. She cast doubt. However, we know today that the level of hormones contained in the American treatment was much higher than in France.”.
One of the aspects of the mission entrusted to Stéphanie Rist will therefore consist of thinking about training courses for health professionals. “We will establish at least recommendations to encourage the prescription of hormonal treatment,” indicates the parliamentarian.
For Stéphanie Rist, information will come through actions ofeducation which would be aimed at the whole of society and “why not from a very young age”.
