Chapter 26 :Midlife and Menopause

1. Chapter 26
Midlife and Menopause
Caitlin Kalagher

2. Main Points
 Midlife – period from 45-65
◦ Involves emotion, social and physical
changes
 Midlife’s physical changes
◦ Vision loss, lack of sex drive, hair thinning,
skin changes, and wrinkles
 Raises Questions such as…
◦ What do I want to do? What am I not able to
do? What can I control? How should I
balance my life?
◦ A time to reexamine values, relationships
and self

3. Main Points
• Menopause- Defined as the end of
monthly bleeding that can begin at 40 or
as late as 60
• The entire transformation called the
perimenopause can last from 1-10 years
• Common perimenopausal signs include
changes in period bleeding, hot flashes, sleep
disturbances, and vaginal dryness. Some may
experience changes in frequency of urination,
memory or mood, and sexual feeling.
• More severe discomforts include, swollen
breasts, water retention, anxiety and irritation.

4. Main Points
 Medical options for treatment
◦ Hormone therapy can help with
symptoms.
◦ Estrogen in the pill, patch, ring, cream and
supplements, and in some cases progestin.
◦ New drugs such as selective estrogen
receptor modulators.
◦ Prevent bone loss and reduce risk of bone
fracture
◦ Bisphosphontes
◦ Reduce bone thinning and risk of fracture

5. Main Points
 Taking Care of ourselves, preventive
health
◦ Many changes of aging are preventable
and reversible
 Take steps to good health: acquire healthy
habits, quitting smoking, exercising more,
eating healthy, reducing dependence on
caffeine, sugar and alcohol.
 Calcium, Vitamin D and Magnesium to prevent
osteoporosis

6. Striking Perspectives
 Ageism
◦ Society separates people by age groups,
fails to celebrate as we get older.
 Getting older is associated with disease.
 Leads to older people feeling ignored, not
important and invisible.
◦ Ageism is the systematic devaluation of
and discrimination against a persons age.
◦ Solution : separate old age being
associated with disease.

7. Agree
 Midlife and menopause is a very trying
period full of many emotional,
bioligical and social changes
 Children start leaving home and
relationships start to change
 Left with many question about the self
and there is a reexamining period

8. Disagree
 I agree with most of the information
 The only “could be” controversial issue
◦ Taking other hormones during
perimenopause
◦ Some may look at menopause as more
natural then something that requires
hormone and drug treatment

9. Relevance
 Women’s struggle during midlife with
menopause is extremely relevant to
today’s society
◦ Both emotion, social and physical
changes
 Ageism is also relevant
◦ Constant examples of older adults being
forced into early retirement or having
trouble finding a job because of
expectations of incapability.

10. Quote
 “ The most important signs of midlife
for me were the physical changes that
made me realize that I was not young;
visual loss, lack of sexual appetite,
hair texture thinning, skin changes,
and some wrinkles. I couldn’t count on
my looks anymore. My body was
changing; what was the rest of my life
going to be like?

11. Discussion Question
 Do you know people who use some
type of hormone therapy to get
through perimenopause ? How do
you feel about using hormones or
other types of drugs during
perimenopause?

12. References
 Midlife and menopause. In (2005). Our
bodies ourselves (pp. 527-552). New
York: Simon & Schuster.