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Jack Ecker: Menopause marks the end of the reproductive years for women, and historically, many have suffered in silence. But many changes are happening in the medical world to address issues women are facing.
WCMU's Tina Sawyer recently sat down with multi-media producer Stefanie Mills to discuss her reporting on these changes for an upcoming episode of WCMU's television show Pressing Matters. Stefanie began by explaining the three stages women go through.
Stefanie Mills: And those are perimenopause, which can start about 8 to 10 years before women actually hit menopause. So this is the time when the ovaries, they're going to start producing less and less estrogen. So you're going to start feeling real funky, periods getting weird. But then you hit menopause. And menopause is actually one day. It is the first day that you have gone an entire calendar year without your menstrual period. The day after that, you're considered post, this is the third stage, you're considered post-menopausal.
TS: We throw a party.
SM: And we throw a party, but not to burst your bubble, symptoms will probably still persist. So this is then, a woman who has hit the stage, it will be in the stage for the remainder of life.
TS: So what are some symptoms that we can look forward to?
SM: Yeah, well, you know, we were talking about hot flashes before this, but there are so many more symptoms that are a part of this transition that I had no idea, like ringing in the ears, frequent UTIs, low libido, pain during sexual intercourse, anxiety, weight gain, brain fog. There is a wealth of symptoms. And actually, as I started to compile this list, I was getting new, I was learning new things like vision problems.
TS: Frozen shoulder, I've heard of.
SM: Frozen shoulders. So it is a wealth of symptoms. And what makes it even more complex is that it is different for every single woman. Not everybody will experience those symptoms.
TS: How have conversations, I guess, changed around the discussions of menopause between women, between medical professionals, in society in general?
SM: A lot. Oh my gosh. When I started talking to people about the story that I was working on menopause, it was like I was a magnet and everybody was drawn to me telling me about what they were going through. Everybody wants to talk about it. And I think that is so different because for generations, our mothers, our grandmothers, they suffered in silence, really. There's nobody to talk to. And I'll say this one other thing, you know, women have been going through perimenopause, menopause forever. And there's never ever been a dedicated menopause specialist, right? We have cardiologists, we have neurologists, we have oncologists, but there's not one special profession dedicated to this. But people are just talking more about it.
TS: A lot of people go to their OB-GYN and discuss these types of matters. They only go over like a chapter in medical school on it.
SM: Yes.
TS: So it's continuing education for these doctors as well.
SM: It is. And Dr. Mello, who we spoke with in our stories, actually, you know, she is doing a lot of research in this and considering adding a course to this at CMU. It's a topic that is growing. There's more information coming out. And there's a lot of changes that have happened too in the last few years, especially with the FDA last year, 2025, removing those black box warnings about hormone replacement therapy. And even Dr. Mello says, you know, when that warning was put in place, a lot of women suffer ed. It was based on a study that may not have had a real big picture of all the individuals.
TS: Yeah, if you think that people are going through symptoms differently, maybe hormone replacement therapy also handles differently in different bodies.
SM: Absolutely. I'll say one more thing that I found really interesting. Heart disease continues to be the number one killer of women. And according to the Cleveland Clinic, they say that women are at an increased risk of osteoporosis and heart disease because of those dropping levels of estrogen.
TS: Is there anything good about this phase of life?
SM: I think we cannot avoid this. We're all going to go through it. But we are in a really unique place in time where talking about it isn't taboo anymore.
TS: You don't feel alone.
SM: You don't feel alone, and there is so much more research and help and options and treatment available. But with menopause, I think a big part of the treatment approach might be more managing those symptoms. So it's not fun. It doesn't sound like it's fun, but we have much better ways to treat and manage in this. It's also important for other people to realize what you're going through and to understanding it better.
JE: That was WCMU multi-media producer Stefanie Mills. You can tune in to watch her story on menopause tonight at 7 p.m. on WCMU Public Television.
