Depression Hits Likely On Menopausal Stage

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Depression Hits Likely On Menopausal Stage

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed

Because of a few misconceptions about peri-menopause, menopause and mood swings, depression therapy for some women can sometimes be used incorrectly. Many people equate menopause and depression, as though the link is inevitable, yet menopause treatment and treatment for depression are not the same things. Mood fluctuations tend to relate quite naturally to changes in hormones, and unless these fluctuations are severe, diet or hormone therapy might be enough to address them. What this means, though, is that certain drug products routinely prescribed for depression might completely miss the actual causes, even if they bring a degree of relief.

One of the facts that any menopause treatment has to take into account is that estrogen tends to be a factor in mood enhancement, while progesterone is more of a mood de-stabilizer. Current treatments for the symptoms that accompany the transition into menopause usually involve hormone replacement therapy (HRT). And yet if the woman has had post partum depression treatment in the past, or has a history of depressive episodes, then HRT can actually worsen the risk of menopause-related depression.

That would mean that such women might consider seeking alternative treatments to alleviate menopausal symptoms, to try to avoid increasing their depression risk even further. And while there are vitamins and supplements that can help, sometimes the best treatments will simply be to exercise and eat properly. Making sure they eat a diet containing plenty of natural estrogens may improve a woman’s mood just as well as drugs, in many cases. A few examples of these foods would be lentils, beans, apples, broccoli, beets, tomatoes, squash and olives. And there are many more. All of this is part of the natural treatment of menopause in general, but depressive symptoms that go along with menopause are as likely to be relieved as other symptoms.

There are other symptoms of menopause, and sometimes women genuinely do need the broad forms of menopause treatment, including HRT, even if these treatments also increase the risk of depression. When that is the case, doctors agree that normal depression therapy should accompany the hormone treatments, and should include antidepressant medications. Rather than making women suffer through untreated depression, all possible health treatments should be made available to them.

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