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 The program helps users learn strategies to control their thoughts
and feelings. Working women who used it were able to significantly
reduce the frequency and interference of hot flushes and night
sweats, and improve their overall quality of life, researchers
found.
Menopause symptoms can be more difficult to deal with in the
workplace than in other settings due to an inability to control the
temperature, embarrassment, stress and other factors, coauthor Myra
S. Hunter, emeritus professor of clinical health psychology, Kings
College London, told Reuters Health by email.
She said that while hormone replacement therapy is an effective
treatment for menopausal symptoms, not all women want to take it.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has been used since the 1960s to
treat a variety of medical problems, including anxiety, depression
and sleep problems.
“This study offers women who have problematic symptoms at work a
brief, non-medical solution. The brief, self-help CBT helped women
to manage symptoms, and also had broader impacts on sleep and
wellbeing,” Hunter said.
The therapy also improved their work experience because they slept
better, experienced less physical discomfort, social embarrassment,
and memory and concentration problems.
As reported online January 8 in Menopause, the researchers produced
a self-help CBT booklet designed to help working menopausal women
learn CBT skills on their own. It included sections on work stress
and how to discuss menopause at work.
Menopause has been and still is, in many contexts, a taboo issue in
the workplace, Hunter said.
The new study involved 124 working postmenopausal women who were
having at least 10 hot flashes or night sweats per week. Half the
women were randomly assigned to receive the self-help CBT booklet
plus a breathing/relaxation CD. The other half were placed on a
waiting list (the control group).
On average, the women in the study were having 56 hot flashes and/or
night sweats per week. They arrived to work late, left early or
stayed home from work an average of two days per month due to
menopausal symptoms.
The participants completed follow-up questionnaires at six weeks and
again at 20 weeks.
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In the self-help group, the frequency of hot flashes and night
sweats decreased by 24% over six weeks and 35% by 20 weeks.
In the control group, however, the frequency of hot flashes and/or
night sweats had fallen by only 0.5% at six weeks and 15% at 20
weeks.
The self-help group also reported significant improvements in sleep
quality and functioning at work, home, leisure and social
situations.
A subset of 27 women from the self-help group were interviewed after
the trial. The majority, 82%, felt the intervention had helped them
with hot flashes/night sweats. Fifty-two percent reported positive
benefits to their work life, and roughly a third had talked about
menopause to their line manager.
One limitation of the study was that is that it relied on subjective
rather than objective measures. Also, the dropout rate was
unexpectedly higher in the self-help group. Participants reported
time pressures as the main problem for not following through with
the intervention.
Dr. Mary Jane Minkin, clinical professor in the department of
obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at Yale Medical
School, New Haven, Connecticut, told Reuters Health by phone that
she doesn’t see any harm in the self-help therapy.
“The question is, how much does it really help?” said Minkin, who
was not involved in the study. “Women need to be apprised that there
are more effective approaches to curb menopause symptoms if they’re
feeling poorly. When you really get down to it, why not use
estrogen?”
The authors’ self-help book for women with hot flushes and night
sweats, “Managing hot flushes and night sweats: a cognitive
behavioral approach to the menopause,” is available from
booksellers.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2DsJpka
Menopause 2018.
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reserved.] Copyright 2018 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
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