Description
Women aged anywhere from 35-65 are now at risk of a new phenomenon: the ‘(peri)menopausal pile-on’, where every one of their health experiences is attributed to their ‘hormones’. Increased awareness and open discourse about this important transitional period of our lives has brought about positive change. On the flipside it runs the risk of over-attribution, missed and misdiagnoses. Changing sex hormones can make an important contribution but are not the whole story, however they have a tendency to trump holism. This case of a 54 year old woman demonstrates the work-up of her complete health and psychosocial history and how, by putting perimenopause last on the list (not first), it has to prove its place and potency as a biological contributor to her presentation. Along the way we look at the 4 big conditions that can co-occur at this age and mimic (peri)menopause. We explore the nature of palpitations and how to improve our questions around these, and discuss in detail a successful rehabilitation and eradication strategy for her chronic gastritis, at the hands of H. pylori. Also included is a clinical tool to help you follow this process in your own (peri)menopausal patients.
