A new series on menopause in a major journal does a disservice, Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Is menopause overmedicalized? That seems to be one conclusion of a recent series published in the Lancet on this life stage for women. Wen Shen, a menopause expert at Johns Hopkins, begs to disagree.

Shen: It's unfortunate that they came across with that impression because if anything we have been trying so hard to educate women that they don't have to put up with symptoms of menopause, they don't have to suffer. There are definitely actual benefits to being treated for menopause symptoms. We have very sound data for that and that's in this paper I'm so surprised to read where they said there is no data.  :32

Shen notes that many of the studies cited in this series were quite old and that subsequent studies have come to different conclusions. She is especially concerned that women and clinicians may be influenced to dismiss troubling menopause symptoms based on this series. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.