Menopause

Early menopause may mean a higher risk of heart disease and stroke, according to a new study from Johns Hopkins Medicine . The researchers say the risk can be twice as high, and doctors should help women avoid early menopause if possible. “If physicians know a patient has entered menopause before her 46th birthday, they can be extra vigilant in making recommendations and providing treatments to help prevent heart attacks and stroke,” Dhananjay Vaidya, an assistant professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine in Hopkins'  School of Medicine and leader of the study, said in a statement.

Even if Caryn Elaine Johnson had never changed her name to Whoopi Goldberg, chances are she would have made a splash. Talent will out. The 56-year-old Goldberg, who will offer a sampling of that talent at the Modell Performing Arts Center at the Lyric on Saturday, has distinguished herself in a variety of endeavors. She's one of only about a dozen people who can adorn a mantelpiece with an Oscar, a Tony, a Grammy and an Emmy — make that two Emmys. She shared one of those Emmys with fellow co-hosts of "The View," the popular daytime TV show.

Women who enter menopause before their 46th birthday are twice as likely to suffer a stroke or coronary heart disease, according to Johns Hopkins researchers. The risk from early menopause is true no matter the ethnic or racial background of a woman, the study found. Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of American women. The results are the same for women who enter menopause naturally as those who have hysterectomies or ovary removal, said Dhananjay Vaidya, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and leader of the study published.

Early menopause may mean a higher risk of heart disease and stroke, according to a new study from Johns Hopkins Medicine . The researchers say the risk can be twice as high, and doctors should help women avoid early menopause if possible. “If physicians know a patient has entered menopause before her 46th birthday, they can be extra vigilant in making recommendations and providing treatments to help prevent heart attacks and stroke,” Dhananjay Vaidya, an assistant professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine in Hopkins'  School of Medicine and leader of the study, said in a statement.

Finally out of previews, Menopause the Musical is officially open to the public for shows through Aug. 5 at the Hippodrome Theatre. The musical comedy, featuring parodies of baby-boomer hit songs, tells the story of four middle-aged women who randomly meet at Bloomingdale's and have little in common other than the symptoms of menopause. The show runs through Aug. 5 at M&T Bank Pavilion at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center, 12 N. Eutaw St. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays, 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Sundays.

AMERICAN men are renowned the world over for their frank speech. In my recent travels around the country, I discovered, however, there is one word that causes them to stutter and stumble and reveal their cultural misperceptions."

Q. I have a dilemma. I am 48 and getting close to menopause. For the past year or so, I have been experiencing vaginal dryness during intercourse. My problem is that I am very susceptible to yeast infections. We have tried nearly every vaginal dryness product on the market (Astroglide, K-Y Jelly, even olive oil), but every one has given me a yeast infection. I thought of using over-the-counter yeast infection creams, but some of them have a topical anesthetic to help deaden the itching and stinging.

I AM A WOMAN OF A certain age.I will not be more specific except to say that menopause is not a vocabulary word on my SATs but an event in my no longer distant future. And I will allow that I am closer to the end of my reproductive life than I am to the beginning of it.I am trying to be upbeat about the approach of this watershed experience for women. I am trying to think of it as a spiritual transformation instead of another step toward the grave. I am trying to imagine myself as a re-energized and creative force rather than as a dried-up, empty husk.

OUR MOTHERS never talked to us about menopause, but we can't seem to shut up about it. The unspoken "change of life" through which our mothers passed - often with tumultuous results for the clueless kids and husband - has lost all its mystery in just one generation. We, our mothers' daughters, understand what is happening to us with the authority of a physician. And we commiserate with each other about its symptoms the same way we complain about our husbands and kids - frequently and with humor.

The largest study of its kind ever conducted has found that women who take estrogen after menopause run an increased risk of developing breast cancer.But experts said the findings did not mean that post-menopausal women should stop taking estrogen. The benefits of the drug are great, they said, and the increased risk of breast cancer is relatively small.The researchers, led by Dr. Graham A. Colditz of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, also found that a year after women stop taking the female sex hormones, the additional risk subsides.

Women who enter menopause before their 46th birthday are twice as likely to suffer a stroke or coronary heart disease, according to Johns Hopkins researchers. The risk from early menopause is true no matter the ethnic or racial background of a woman, the study found. Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of American women. The results are the same for women who enter menopause naturally as those who have hysterectomies or ovary removal, said Dhananjay Vaidya, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and leader of the study published.

Every woman will experience menopause, some in the normal course of aging and some before. It can bring on a host of symptoms in addition to hot flashes. But there are things that women can do, from improving their diet and exercising to finding the right treatment, explains Dr. Rakhi Gupta, a gynecologist at the Center for Women's Health at Good Samaritan Hospital. She answers some common questions about this life change. What is menopause? Menopause is a normal life change that occurs as women age, usually between their late 40s and 50s. Menopause is defined as the discontinuation of menstruation for one year or more.

How you feel about Menopause: the Musical likely will depend on your response to the Chitlin Circuit and the Borscht Belt. Elite America snootily likes to pretend that the theat-uh it patronizes has nothing whatsoever in common with the declasse offerings of the Chitlin Circuit (known alternately as African-American "urban theater") or the Borscht Belt that gave a jump-start to the careers of such Jewish entertainers as Mel Brooks and Buddy Hackett. If you go Menopause: the Musical is being performed in the M&T Bank Pavilion of the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center, 12 N. Eutaw St., through at least Sept.

Here's a hot flash for you - or rather, a bunch of them. Rebecca Hulem is a Los Angeles-based nurse practitioner and consultant who is known as "The Menopause Expert." Her 2003 book, Feelin' Hot? A Humorous, Informative and Truthful Look at Menopause, is about ... well, the title is pretty self-explanatory. Hulem decided to write the book and to maintain a Web site (themenopauseexpert.com) after experiencing a particularly rocky Silent Passage. "I was having mood swings, fatigue, difficulty focusing," she says.

HEY, MS. FORTY- OR fiftysomething -- Yes, you, the one with the hot flashes and mood swings. You say that your internal furnace makes your face glow such a bright red it could guide ships into port? You say that you take so many bathroom breaks you're thinking of setting up a cot next to the bathtub? You say the perspiration you collect from one night could fill a child's swimming pool? No sweat -- you're just going through menopause. The good news is, you're not alone. Menopause The Musical is in an open-ended run at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center.

Finally out of previews, Menopause the Musical is officially open to the public for shows through Aug. 5 at the Hippodrome Theatre. The musical comedy, featuring parodies of baby-boomer hit songs, tells the story of four middle-aged women who randomly meet at Bloomingdale's and have little in common other than the symptoms of menopause. The show runs through Aug. 5 at M&T Bank Pavilion at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center, 12 N. Eutaw St. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays, 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Sundays.

How you feel about Menopause: the Musical likely will depend on your response to the Chitlin Circuit and the Borscht Belt. Elite America snootily likes to pretend that the theat-uh it patronizes has nothing whatsoever in common with the declasse offerings of the Chitlin Circuit (known alternately as African-American "urban theater") or the Borscht Belt that gave a jump-start to the careers of such Jewish entertainers as Mel Brooks and Buddy Hackett. If you go Menopause: the Musical is being performed in the M&T Bank Pavilion of the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center, 12 N. Eutaw St., through at least Sept.

In the eight weeks since the federal government announced that it had halted a study of a popular hormone therapy used by postmenopausal women, doctors say they have been deluged by an ever-growing tide of promotional material for anything and everything that could substitute for Prempro, the drug used in the study. The alternatives run the gamut: prescription drugs that consist of slightly different hormone formulations, nutritional supplements made of herbs and vitamins, soy products said to be natural sources of estrogen and even what might be termed menopause accessories, such as one company's "cooling comfort towelettes" to wipe the sweat from hot flashes.

Nearly five years after government scientists told women that taking estrogen replacement therapy increased their risk of heart attack and stroke, researchers have concluded that the drugs are beneficial for many after all. Continuing analysis of the original data indicates that the researchers raised a false alarm for most women, and that, if women begin taking the hormones shortly after menopause, the drugs do not raise the risk of heart disease and,...

A 2002 study that led millions of women to throw out their hormone pills may have overestimated the dangers of that medication to women in their 50s, new research suggests. The new study in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association found that for women near the start of menopause, the pills do not increase the incidence of heart attacks or other cardiac complications. Findings regarding stroke were less clear cut, but researchers said that the youngest women appeared to be at the lowest risk.