Which is Worse, Perimenopause or Menopause? | PYHP 114
Patient Question: A patient in her later 40\u2019s, who is having a tough time with perimenopausal symptoms, recently asked me which is worse, perimenopause or menopause?\nShort Answer:\xa0After dealing with many patients over the years, it is clear that both Perimenopause and Menopause are difficult and the symptoms can have a significant impact on a women\u2019s quality of life. However, there are better treatment options for menopause then for perimenopause.\nPYHP 114 Full Transcript:\nDownload PYHP 114 Transcript\xa0\nDr. Maki: Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us for another episode of the Progress Your Health Podcast. I\u2019m Dr. Maki.\nDr. Davidson: And I\u2019m Dr. Davidson.\nDr. Maki: So this morning, we\u2019re just going to kind of sort of a question, but this was not actually one that someone answered on the website or wrote to us. This is actually from a patient that I recently saw. She\u2019s 46, which is kind of a- I\u2019m sure you would agree, it\u2019s kind of like a very common age for our new patients. She\u2019s kind of miserable at the moment, has a lot going on, and just does not feel very good. And she actually asked me the question because she hears horror stories about menopause, but she\u2019s feeling pretty rotten right now. So she asked the question, \u201cWhich is worse, perimenopause or menopause?\u201d So I thought that was a very nice way for us to do an episode around that.\nDr. Davidson: Exactly, because we see this all the time, you know, a lot of menopausal females, perimenopause. And sometimes, we kind of overlook a little bit of the differences between the two and how people feel because, you know, everyone\u2019s different.\nDr. Maki: Yeah. Now, honestly, this is the reason why we\u2019re doing the podcast in the first place, because when it comes to some of these female hormone issues in general whether it\u2019s PMS, PCOS, perimenopause, menopause, the conventional treatments and approaches are just not very good. Women are kind of left to their own devices. They\u2019re not really given a lot of options. We\u2019ve kind of figured that out over the years, right? There\u2019s this big gap in the problems that women are experiencing. Before, it used to be just, \u201cWell, that\u2019s just aging and you just have to deal with it.\u201d I don\u2019t think that\u2019s really acceptable, really, in the 21st century.\nDr. Davidson: I think some people still hear that, you know, \u201cIt\u2019s okay. That\u2019s just getting older.\u201d\nDr. Maki: Well, yeah. That\u2019s easy for the practitioner to say when they\u2019re not the o