Menopause

Elevating women from the nadir of ovarian hypofunction has been a major driving force in developing hormonal strategies for the management of menopause. This may have resulted in unacceptable morbidity in several women. Likewise, the use of menstrual cessation as the hallmark of menopause may have served the counterproductive effect of delaying the onset of appropriate preventive pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic strategies until the later years of life. The controversies that surround the precise health implications of menopause deal mainly with the risk of chronic disease. Health professionals are best advised to develop menopausal intervention strategies that parallel the continuum of a woman's life, beginning in adolescence and extending into later life.