As if things aren’t good enough with menopause, and vaginal dryness comes along too.
Oestrogen supports blood flow to the vaginal lining and as oestrogen levels fall off, so does the blood flow. Vaginal tissue becomes thinner and dryer leaving you to feel the irritation and uncomfortableness that brings.
This is one of those menopausal symptoms that never goes away, often getting worse the older a women gets. There are other more serious long-term consequences of menopause.
Menopause And Vaginal Dryness Symptoms
The symptoms often creep up on a women, you might feel like you’ve got thrush – you’re generally irritated, itchy, and maybe sore. Treatments you’ve used for thrush in the past don’t work anymore, because it’s not thrush.
Lack of oestrogen also affects your bladder control. You can either feel like you’ve got a ‘weak bladder’, and started buying Tenor Ladies. Or you might have a sense of urgency in getting to the toilet, and fear of not making it in time. You might be getting up a night to go to the loo.
The other really common problem it causes is painful sex.
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Easy To Treat
Menopause and vaginal dryness can bring absolute misery to some women, but you can easily treat it and feel comfortable again, be able to have sex without pain, and regain control for your bladder.
Since the problem is lack of oestrogen, the solution is oestrogen.
The best way to treat is topical oestrogen cream used vaginally. This is really safe and very effective.
It’s a really common for thing for GPs to prescribe for both menopausal and older women, and it can give so much quality of life back.
I have a colleague who is putting most of her female patients in nursing homes on vaginal oestrogen cream. This is helping enormously with incontinence issues in these women, not to mention how much it’s helping with their feelings of self-worth.
As a GP I see quite a lot of older men asking for Viagra. I’m tempted to say “not until I’ve seen your wife and prescribed oestrogen cream for her”..
If this is an issue for you – see your GP because it’s so easy to sort out.
Menopause Help Available
Have a great week.
Dr Julie
Thank you Julie, this is some of the most sensible advice I have ever read. And yes, I have taken your advce.
You’re welcome Susan
Hi Julie
will this also work if you are both post menopausal and had radiotherapy and brachytherapy for cervical cancer?
Hi Diane – great for post menopausal women. I would suggest discussing with your GP about the other issues as I haven’t enough info to offer advise on that, but definitely worth an appointment to find out.
My brilliant doc prescribed estradiol (oestrogen) pellets, inserted vaginally and easily with an applicator the size of a pen. These were a lifesaver for me as I was having ongoing UTIs and kidney infections from vaginal dryness. I am now much more in balance, with far fewer infections. As a perk, my active sex life is also back to normal.
That all sounds pretty excellent to me 🙂