Menopause Care for Caregivers - Female & Male

By Editor, on August 27th, 2011

As a caregiver, are you feeling stressed, down, possibly depressed, experiencing head aches, feeling irritable, alternately hot and cold, or even having chest pains or back pains? Maybe you are experiencing common symptoms of Menopause, without taking time to focus on your own care because of your caregiving duties.

Doctors now say both females and males experience some of the same hormonal-induced symptoms at a certain age.

Information on Menopause for Women

Here are some places to start educating yourself about the common symptoms of female menopause, and how to alleviate and treat them:

A pamphlet called, Menopause: Managing Your Body’s Changes, by the Hormone Foundation, a non-profit organization, provides introductory information.

This pamphlet provides a very basic introduction to some of the typical symptoms of menopause and available treatments and steps to alleviate them, and also includes a helpful checklist of questions to ask your doctor.

The Hormone Foundation is the public education affiliate of The Endocrine Society, is a non-profit organization that is a leading source of hormone-related health information for the public, physicians, allied health professionals and the media. Our mission is to serve as a resource for the public by promoting the prevention, treatment and cure of hormone-related conditions through outreach and education.

The Hormone Foundation also provides a number of links to additional information and Resources on Menopause.

An excellent resource for more in-depth information on Menopause, with extensive links to fact sheets and other sources, is provided by PubMed Health, a website of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Further, Medline Plus, another website of the NIH, also provides an extensive resource page on Menopause.

And, see Cleveland Clinic’s Q & A on Menopause.

Male Menopause

If you are a male caregiver, are you experiencing some similar signs of distress? Don’t laugh! According to the Cleveland Clinic, “Women may not be the only ones who suffer the effects of changing hormones. Some doctors are noticing that their male patients are reporting some of the same symptoms that women experience in menopause.”

The Cleveland Clinic goes on to say, “The medical community is currently debating whether or not men really do go through a well-defined menopause. Doctors have reported that male patients receiving hormone replacement therapy (testosterone) have reported relief of some of the symptoms associated with so-called male menopause.”

Read more about Male Menopause on the Cleveland Clinic’s Website.

See also, Male menopause: Myth or reality? by the Mayo Clinic.

Additional Information

And, see Healthline’s Menopause site.

Regarding “Male Menopause,” see also the Male Menopause Resource pages by MedicineNet.

And, see generally the HelpingYouCare™ resource pages on Wellness/ Healthy Living for Seniors & Caregivers, including:

Diet & Nutrition: Physical Wellness;

Exercise: Physical Wellness;

Sleep, Hygiene, Quit Smoking & Other Healthy Practices: Physical Wellness;

Activities for Mental Acuity: Intellectual Wellness;

Social Interaction & A Sense of Connection With Others: Social Wellness;

Other Areas of Wellness: Emotional, Ethical/ Spiritual & Vocational Wellness; and