On the first Friday of every month, at 12:00 p.m. ET, Skin, Bones, Hearts & Private Parts offers FREE, 30-minute live Zoom webinars on timely topics and common healthcare challenges, presented by some of our best faculty members. Called our Master Clinician Series, we offer these webinars to support lifetime learning, share the best of our speakers’ contributions to their specialties, and introduce ourselves to those who haven’t (yet!) attended one of our CME Conferences, in-person or online. While the webinars are non-CME, any nurse practitioner (NP), registered nurse (RN), physician assistant (PA), or physician looking to expand their knowledge will find the half-hour well worth their time.

March Spotlight: Hot Topics in Menopause … Your Top 5 “Must Knows”

This month, we’ll focus on menopause – a topic gaining more attention as the impacts are more widely recognized and society shifts toward discussing once-taboo subjects. Aleece Fosnight, PA-C, CSC-S, CSE, NCMP, presented “Hot Topics in Menopause” as part of our Master Clinician Series in 2024.

Menopause is a hot topic right now, Fosnight began, and for good reason: 6,000 women enter menopause every day, and there are essential tips and strategies clinicians need to know and share with their patients. It’s also important to recognize that while the average age of menopause is 51 years of age, women can enter perimenopause and menopause at widely ranging ages … and perimenopause can start five to 10 years before that menopause actually starts.

“It’s not necessarily uncommon for some patients to talk about symptoms that may resemble perimenopause at age 35,” she said. “Having these conversations and talking about it is really important; we can’t tell women ‘they’re too young’ for that. A woman’s menstrual cycle or period also isn’t the end all and be all. There are so many other things causing changes, and along with misinformation about hormone therapy or interventions, we absolutely need to start supporting women with options well before we traditionally have.”

Menopause Symptoms

• Anxiety
• Brain Fog
• Depression
• Fatigue
• Headaches/Migraines
• Heart Palpitations
• Hot Flashes/Night Sweats
• Incontinence
• Irritability
• Joint Pain
• Low Libido
• Painful Sex
• Period Changes
• Skin and/or Hair Changes
• Sleep Issues
• Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs)
• Weight Gain.

Common Misconceptions

Fosnight covers some of the most common misconceptions patients have, in particular the role of hormones and the effects they have on women’s bodies. Ninety percent of testosterone, for example, comes from the ovaries, and women have 10 times more testosterone in their bodies than they do estrogen. Deficiencies in testosterone can lead to sleep issues and heart palpitations, yet many women think of testosterone as only a male hormone. In turn, estrogen has over 400 functions in the body, with a particularly big impact on our cardiovascular health. Given that heart disease is the number-one cause of death in America for women, we need to be doing a better job of looking at the relationship between estrogen and heart health as women enter menopause and postmenopause, she points out. Similarly, we know there is a direct correlation between decreased estrogen and an increased risk of dementia or Alzheimers.

Key Actions

• Bone density, or DEXA, scans: The National Osteoporosis Foundation recommends getting a bone density screening at age 65 unless a woman has high-risk factors, such as smoking, alcohol abuse, or a family history of osteopenia/osteoporosis. A newer guideline is to also test sooner for anyone who reached menopause earlier than age 50 or had surgical menopause or ovary removal.

• Nutrition – beyond just food: Everything we ‘feed’ our bodies, such as movement, weight training, sleep, and relaxation can be as important as our intake of fats, protein, carbs, and water.

• Hormone therapies: Fosnight’s tips for her patients typically include a mix of estradiol patch, oral micronized progesterone, testosterone gel, and an Intrarosa suppository. More than 80 percent of postmenopausal women struggle with chronic genital sexual and urinary discomfort, she said, so a big portion of patients seek therapies for that alone. A recent study, in fact, showed that using a localized estrogen cream can also help prevent recurrent urinary tract infections in up to 50 percent of women.

“We want to optimize that hormonal profile for each one of our patients, and it’s so individualized,” she added. “I always tell my patients, ‘You don’t come with a manual. You have a unique recipe.’ So, it will take time to tweak therapies and discover each patient’s sweet spot.”

Learn More

Curious to hear more? Tune into Fosnight’s webinar – or explore the Skin, Bones, Hearts & Private Parts’ Master Clinician Series upcoming events. It may be the most valuable half-hour you’ll spend all month!

This article is brought to you by Skin, Bones, Hearts & Private Parts, a leading provider of In-Person, Virtual and Online CME for Nurse Practitioners, Registered Nurses, Physician Assistants, and Physicians. Learn more.