As the roles of women in society have changed and medical knowledge has grown, the treatment of menopause in medical literature and the way society views menopausal women has changed.
Early Menopause Beliefs
In centuries past, menopause wasn’t something many women dealt with. A girl born in 1789 would be expected to live only to the age of 36 and a half. By 1890, this had increased to only 44 and a half.
Ancient Greeks thought all disease was caused by an imbalance or excess of “humors.” Menopause was attributed to an excess of humors, since the cessation of menstruation no longer allowed these humors to balance out each month. One popular remedy was to apply leaches to the legs to let out excess blood and once again balance the humors.
The Disease of Female Menopause
In 1777, John Leake wrote in Chronic or Slow Diseases Peculiar to Women that menopause caused “pain and giddiness of the head, hysteric disorders, colic pain and a mid-life female weakness.”
The word "menopause" itself wasn’t even used until the 1870s. It comes from the Greek words "meno" for month and "pause" for cessation – the end of a woman’s monthly courses, or menstruation. Before the 1870s, this time in a woman’s life was referred to as “the change”, “cessation,” “Indian summer,” or other euphemistic terms.
In the 1880s, one prescription for avoiding the “evil effects” of menopause was for a woman to avoid too much education, concern with fashion or too much sexual activity, and to devote herself to the care of her husband and children.
Menopausal Women in Modern Times
In the 1930s, estrogen was used to treat the symptoms of menopause. By the 1960s, it was accepted that menopause was a disease. The cause of the disease – a deficiency of estrogen – could be addressed and the disease prevented.
In 1977, Barbara Seaman wrote Women and the Crises in Sex Hormones, which linked hormone replacement therapy to an increased risk of breast cancer, stroke and blood clots, but the first wide-scale studies to test this weren’t conducted until the 1990s. With the release in 2002 of the results of the Women’s Health Initiative study, attitudes about hormones for menopause changed. This study showed that women who took a combination of progestin and estrogen had an increased risk of breast cancer, heart attack, stroke and blood clots.
Treatments for Menopause
Not until March of 2005 did the National Institutes of Health issue a statement concluding that menopause was not a disease to be treated or eliminated, but a natural phase in the life of women. While some women choose to continue hormone replacement therapy, others look to herbs, dietary changes and alternative medicine such as acupuncture.
Sources:
The Meanings of Menopause: Historical, Medical, and Cultural Perspectives; Ruth Formanek, Editor; 1990
Hot and Bothered: Women, Medicine, and Menopause in Modern America; Judith A. Houck; 2008
Life in the Middle: Psychological and Social Development in Middle Age; Sherry L. Willis and James B. Reid. Editor;1998
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