A consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, Ademola Ayodele, has said it is important for women to maintain healthy lifestyles such as healthy weight, exercise, sugar reduction, and healthy diet to help them cope with menopause effectively.
Ayodele who noted that there were different medical preparations and modulations that could help women undergoing severe symptoms of menopause, said every woman would eventually go through menopause at one time or another.
Speaking in Lagos on Tuesday, the medical director of a Lagos-based private medical facility, urged women to see menopause as a way of coming of age rather than feeling dejected or deprived.
While explaining that menopause was the absence of menstrual periods for 12 months, which occurs when a woman stops producing the hormones that cause menstrual periods for 12 months in a row, the consultant added that the ages at which menopause occurs vary with individuals, but the earliest age considered normal was 40.
According to him, the actual age that most women enter menopause is 45 years, but in Nigeria and most parts of Africa, the majority of women enter menopause between the ages of 49 and 51.
He said: “Menopause is universal among women – meaning that every woman will eventually go through it at one time or the other. So, if we look at it that way, we will stop looking at it as a disease. The psychological attitude of the individual matters, and that is why some people call it the golden-age experience.
“So, even if a woman is having menopause before the age of 50, she should see it as a way of coming of age rather than feeling dejected or deprived.”
Ayodele identified smoking and drug use as major risk factors that could make menopause set in earlier than the normal time
“Every symptom of menopause can be effectively managed, whether it is a heat wave, dryness of the private part or reduction in the size of the breast, among others.
“There are drugs that people can use to minimise the symptoms and feel better. In fact, because of the universality of menopause, there are alternative remedies that people have discovered that help. But medically, the drugs are straightforward. They are either drugs that work directly on the body or hormonal.’’