Women who are going through menopause can reduce their symptoms with different hormones. “There are tablets, but also sprays, patches or gels with hormones available,” says Dorenda van Dijken, gynecologist and former chairman of the Dutch Menopause Society to Editie NL. “For years there was a fear among women about using hormones: they could cause cancer. But that fear turned out to be unfounded. And now we see that we are going too far in the use of hormones. Many women now think that everyone has to take hormones. .”
And according to her, that in itself is not bad, but it must be carefully examined whether hormone therapy is really necessary. “I’m not worried about the hormones themselves,” Van Dijken continues. “I am actually a huge supporter of this. Because women with serious complaints can certainly benefit a lot from it. But some women think: the more hormones you administer, the better. In some cases, women take two or three times the amount of hormones that you have to get. And that’s dangerous.”
According to her, the fact that women are now better able to find their way to hormone treatment is partly due to reports on social media. A call is now being made for women across the country to go to GPs this Easter weekend to ‘request their hormones back’. They want women to have free access to their own hormones. Van Dijken has her reservations about this. “We must provide tailor-made care for each woman. We look at all kinds of factors that can differ enormously for each woman. How long you have to take certain hormones and how much differs per woman.”
Writer Elsbeth Teeling, from the Club of Relaxed Mothers, has been receiving hormone therapy for a year now. She benefits greatly from it herself, but advises other women not to simply turn to hormones. “First take a closer look at your life,” she tells Editie NL.
Overstimulated
“When I entered menopause myself, I noticed that I was overstimulated, my head was full, I could no longer think and I found everything in my environment a lot.” She kept track of her mood swings in a ‘period tracker’ and talked a lot with friends about her state of mind, eventually writing a book about her experiences with menopause. And that helped her. “I listen to my body much better, and if I get overstimulated, for example, I go to bed earlier than the rest of my family.”
Yet she also receives hormone treatment. “You experience a lot in this phase of life. I now have hormone patches and pills, which give me a lot of relief. I also have much less anxious thoughts.”
But according to her, hormone treatment is not the ‘holy grail’. “First talk to your friends, see what you can adjust in your life before you start taking hormones.”
