Thoughts on Menopause....

Menopause news that may be useful to you….

I recently had an appointment with Dr. Oommen at Cardiogenix. I was put in the unfortunate position of needing to go to private health care as I was yet again abandoned by our public health care system. That being said – I got my full on medical check up and had some very interesting conversations with Dr. Oommen – yes, believe it or not I get the time with him to have conversations.

We were discussing various menopausal symptoms, one of them being the weight gain at this time that so many women are concerned about. He had such a fascinating explanation: Women no longer have the “aerobic activity” of producing a period every month. We no longer have the hormonal machination going, no longer have to produce a lining in our uterus, no longer have to shed that lining, no longer have to begin the process anew every month. This, when I think about the arduous process it used to be, seems to represent quite the expenditure of energy to do – and that energy is no longer needed, and that, Dr. Oommen theorizes, has a substantial bit to do with weight gain. I’m buying into this idea.

I’d also like to share that Dr. Ooman is one of the first and only doctors I have met that understood that hormone testing is basically useless because of the great fluctuation in a woman’s body during perimenopause. Finally, a doctor that can say – we can’t tell you anything about this.

Another thing you need to know is that Dr. Oommen is a great believer in exercise being a panacea for most of our ills, and truth be told, it does resolve so many of our mid-life problems: difficulties with sleep, weight gain, mood fluctuations, stress, …. With all that help you really have to wonder why it’s so hard for so very many of us to get on the exercise bandwagon.

I really wish there were many more doctor’s like Dr. Oommen out there. It’s a shame that the profession doesn’t value the relationship with the "client" – of course I’m biased in that area but really, to treat your client with respect, to respect what they in fact know about their own bodies, that doesn’t cost you anything as a doctor.

Thanks Dr. Oommen.