<\/p>\n
Melissa Joan Hart remembers her mom standing in front of the open fridge a handful of times growing up. She never explicitly said the word \u201cmenopause\u201d\u2014it just wasn\u2019t discussed. <\/p>\n
Now that she\u2019s in it herself, Hart is doing things differently. She\u2019s teamed up with Bayer and OBGYN and menopause specialist Diana Bitner, MD, on the \u201cLife Doesn\u2019t Stop for a Hot Flash\u201d campaign to help women walk into their doctor\u2019s office prepared.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cThis is a conversation that hasn\u2019t happened enough in the past,\u201d Hart says. \u201cThere was a little taboo to talk about it before. I am hoping we\u2019re the generation to unlock that. To be honest, I wasn\u2019t really sure where to start\u2026I didn\u2019t know that there were treatment options available. I thought we just had to suffer through it.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Hart, it started with night sweats. \u201cI was waking up in the middle of the night and kicking off all the covers,\u201d she says. \u201cI was the kind of person that went to sleep with socks on because I was always cold. All of a sudden, I\u2019m drenched, and I can\u2019t go back to bed.\u201d What surprised her was learning that this counts as a moderate to severe hot flash. \u201cIf it takes you away from what you\u2019re doing, then that\u2019s a severe hot flash. For me, it was taking me out of sleep. It was happening once in a while, then it was more. I was like, \u2018Wait a second, what is this?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
She\u2019s far from alone. An estimated 2 million U.S. women enter menopause each year, and many deal with hot flashes for seven to 10 years. \u201cI think it\u2019s crazy that 50 percent of women experience moderate to severe hot flashes in their first year of menopause,\u201d Dr. Bitner says. \u201cWomen can be very distracted with these. In the middle of a board presentation or in the middle of a shoot for Melissa, they can be very interfering. Ten percent of women leave the workforce during menopause, and we just can\u2019t have that.\u201d<\/p>\n
So where do you start? Dr. Bitner\u2019s advice is refreshingly practical: Bring a list to your doctor. \u201cHow many hot flashes am I having? Some women can have them a few times a week. For some women, it\u2019s several times a day, a night. I want them to come in with that information,\u201d she says. \u201cI think people are confused about why they happen, how long they\u2019re going to last. There\u2019s a lot of myths out there. In menopause, once you\u2019re in it, it\u2019s the rest of your life. We really want to set women up for success.\u201d<\/p>\n
That includes knowing every option on the table. One of the newer ones is Lynkuet (elinzanetant) 60 mg capsules, an FDA-approved, hormone-free prescription treatment for moderate to severe hot flashes due to menopause. \u201cI love that it works centrally in the brain, similar to hormone treatments, but it\u2019s non-hormonal,\u201d Dr. Bitner explains. \u201cAs an OB-GYN surgeon, I\u2019m used to giving informed consent. Someone comes in with a problem, and we say, \u2018Here are all your options, including do nothing.\u2019 For some women, [hormone therapy] is just either not an option from a medical perspective or they just prefer not to.\u201d Hart has been talking with her own doctor about treatment options; she isn\u2019t on Lynkuet yet, but plans to get cleared at her next appointment.<\/p>\n
Dr. Bitner is just as direct about the risks. \u201cIf people consider Lynkuet, we really hope that they get full informed consent. For example, I have a patient who drives a hi-lo at a nuclear power plant. Lynkuet can be associated with severe central nervous system effects and daytime impairment. I don\u2019t want her to drive or operate her hi-lo until those effects have passed.\u201d <\/p>\n
On the beauty front, Hart hasn\u2019t overhauled her routine as she\u2019s gotten older, but she is the queen of consistency. \u201cI can\u2019t say my skin care has necessarily changed because I found something that worked for me in my 30s, and I\u2019ve kept it that way. I might just slather on a little more now!\u201d<\/p>\n
She says her real beauty secret has been sleep. About 10 years ago, she started training herself to sleep on her back with a pillow under her knees (a natural side sleeper, she knew the pillow creases weren\u2019t \u201chelping any wrinkles\u201d), and started using a weighted blanket. Then the hot flashes made that blanket \u201ca little bit unbearable.\u201d \u201cI\u2019ll go to sleep with my blanket on, but then I would have to rip it off in the middle of a hot flash. Then I\u2019m tossing and turning all over the bed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Bitner says that lost sleep shows. \u201cWhen women are sleeping well, it\u2019s beauty sleep. If you have moderate to severe hot flashes and they\u2019re waking you in the night, and then many women can\u2019t get back to sleep, they don\u2019t have that beauty sleep. We might not feel like drinking water, which we need to keep our skin with good turgor and all the things.\u201d <\/p>\n
As for what\u2019s next, Hart is keeping details under wraps, but she says her Instagram is the place to watch. Right now, though, her focus is on keeping up the momentum: \u201cI really just want to get out the word that we should be talking about menopause! Let\u2019s keep bringing it up\u2014talk to our sisters, our friends, our neighbors. Let\u2019s keep the conversation going.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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