Three in four women unaware menopause can trigger new mental illness, poll finds | Menopause

Surveys show almost three-quarters of women in the UK do not know that menopause could trigger a new mental illness.

This lack of understanding is so severe that the Royal College of Psychiatrists has launched its first targeted “position statement” to raise awareness of the issue. menopause and mental health.

A YouGov survey commissioned by the college, which represents more than 20,000 psychiatrists, found that only 28% of women knew a new mental illness could be linked to menopause. In contrast, 93 percent of women associate menopause with hot flashes, and 76 percent associate it with decreased sexual desire.

As a result, many women do not seek or receive vital help, RCPsych reports.

The president of the university, Dr. Lade Smith said: “Menopause can have a significant but often overlooked impact on women’s mental health and wellbeing. Women make up 51% of the population and will all experience menopause at some point. It’s a societal issue for everyone. Simply put, we must do better.”

The report makes clear the impact perimenopause can have on mental health, and the figures are striking. Anxiety and low mood are relatively common side effects of hormonal changes during menopause, but for some women, menopause significantly increases the chance of developing serious mental illness.

It is more than twice as likely to occur in perimenopausal women developing bipolar disorder and 30% more likely to develop clinical depression; Hormonal and physical changes associated with menopause can lead to relapse or trigger depression. development of eating disorders. Suicide rates are also higher in menopausal women.

RCPsych’s co-chair of women’s and mental health, Dr. Cath Durkin said: “For women with or at risk of bipolar disorder, perimenopause may represent a special period of clinical danger that has historically gone unrecognized.”

The report emphasized that bipolar women who experience postpartum depression or premenstrual mood symptoms also have a higher risk of recurrence of depression during menopause.

The report calls on health services and governments in all countries in the UK to take urgent action to improve care, including compulsory teaching of menopause and mental health in all medical and psychiatric training, and menopause policies that address its relationship to mental health in all workplaces.

This comes as a study from University College London published in the journal Reproductive Health to create While 58 per cent of black women in the UK say they are completely unaware about menopause, many find it “psychologically damaging”. More than half (53%) reported feeling anxious, but most women said they had been diagnosed with anxiety or depression, not menopause, when they spoke to their GP. As a result, the study found that only a fifth (23%) were taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to manage menopausal symptoms.

TV presenter and Menopause author Davina McCall said she supported RCPsych’s position statement. She said: “Lack of information and ingrained stigma still hinder open conversations between doctors and patients, in the workplace, among friends and family, and leave women without the critical support they need at a hugely sensitive time in their lives. And this is simply unacceptable. Why are women still struggling to have their voices heard?”

Janet Lindsay, chief executive of Wellbeing of Women, said: “Women’s symptoms have been ignored or misunderstood for too long. We fully support the call for better awareness, joined-up care, better workplace support and policies, and more research to help ensure women are listened to and supported during menopause.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “It is unacceptable that women face barriers to the care and support they need. We are taking action, introducing the menopause question to NHS health checks, revamping the women’s health strategy and investing an extra £688 million in mental health services while recruiting a further 8,500 mental health workers.

“Women now have access to a wider range of treatments, as well as improved training for new doctors to help provide faster diagnosis and support.”

‘Nobody knew how bad things really were’

Sonja Rincon, 43

“I was 35 when I first went to my doctor with symptoms I couldn’t explain, like overwhelming fatigue and low mood. I felt like something had fundamentally changed in the way I functioned. The doctor’s answer was first antidepressants, then a higher dose, then different antidepressants.

“At the time, I didn’t even know perimenopause existed. I had no idea that it could cause depression. I was a single parent, and although I was still able to care for my daughter, it was exhausting in a way that’s hard to describe. Even picking up a newspaper or doing a load of laundry felt like a huge effort. I was working outwardly, but I wasn’t feeling anything, and I was sleeping as much as I could. I was still working, but I did the bare minimum to keep my job.”

“No one around me knew how bad things really were, because I became so good at faking it. I had no previous experience of mental health problems, so it came out of nowhere. I was treated for depression for seven years, but the real cause – perimenopause – remained unidentified.”

“When you have to go back to the doctor to have the same conversation, something is wrong. This compounded the low feelings I was experiencing. I lost trust in my own body and even my own judgment.

“Finally, when my friends my age started having hot flashes, I realized I might be going through menopause, which I was experiencing, too. So I educated myself about menopause. He demanded that he be taken seriously and that he be treated. I finally got an official diagnosis of perimenopause last year and started HRT. It was like rediscovering myself after years of antidepressants. I feel so much better now that I was able to get off antidepressants completely.

“GP training needs to change. When a woman in her mid-30s presents with fatigue, low mood and confusion, perimenopause needs to be on the list of possibilities.

“People like me shouldn’t be medically dismissed because they’re ‘too young’ for perimenopause. Women are losing years of their lives to a diagnostic gap that’s completely preventable with better education. That’s why I built this system.” Menotracker applicationto help other women feel less alone and have more control over their symptoms.”