Our Daily Show! National Women's Health Week With OSF
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ALTON - To mark Mental Health Awareness Month and National Women’s Health Week, Dr. Isha McConkey stopped by “Our Daily Show!” with C.J. Nasello to talk about mental health during menopause.
McConkey, D.O., serves as the managing medical director with OSF Medical Group in Alton. She explained that fluctuations in hormones like estrogen and progesterone affect neurotransmitters that impact mood, processing and more. Understanding how your body and brain are affected by menopause can help people manage these symptoms and feel better.
“If your estrogen is not stable, neither is your mood,” McConkey said. “What I would like is for women to just trust themselves and trust their bodies and bring all of their concerns to their doctor and kind of let us tease that out.”
McConkey explained that a neurotransmitter like serotonin, which impacts happiness, is affected by fluctuating hormone levels. While people with consistently low serotonin levels could be prescribed a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) like Prozac, this will actually make it worse for a person who is experiencing hormonal changes. Instead, hormone replacement therapy can be beneficial.
The neurotransmitter acetylcholine is often affected, as well. This neurotransmitter impacts processing and memory. Some patients worry that they might be developing ADHD or early-onset dementia when menopause is actually the reason behind these changes.
GABA, another neurotransmitter, also affects sleep, and a lot of patients complain about sleep issues during menopause or perimenopause. In addition to hormone replacement therapy, McConkey suggests using supplements to manage symptoms, though she emphasized you should always talk to your physician first as certain supplements can interfere with medications.
While there are therapies that can help, these changes can be initially scary for patients who don’t understand what’s going on. Especially during perimenopause, when you are still experiencing periods, symptoms are often overlooked or confused.
“Imagine if every morning you wake up and you don’t really know who you’re going to be,” McConkey said. “Your hormones are fluctuating so you don’t have that stable serotonin, so you don’t exactly know how your personality is going to be. Our neurotransmitters are stable throughout most of our life for most people. So when your hormones are suddenly shifting, you’re experiencing things you haven’t experienced since puberty.”
She believes menopause has “a huge shame component” because American society treats it as a taboo and values stoicism over emotionality. As a result, menopause is rarely talked about, and many of these patients are at a loss when they begin experiencing symptoms.
McConkey is usually the first person to suggest menopause or perimenopause to her patients, and it’s often a major relief to hear that there is a reason behind these sudden changes.
“I can gently say, ‘I don’t think you’re crazy. Good news,’” she said. “You’d be surprised how many tears that brings, though, because a lot of times that’s the first thing women think when all of their lives they have felt one way and all of a sudden they wake up and they’re having all these symptoms.”
McConkey encourages people to bring a list of all their symptoms to their doctor so they can be properly diagnosed and receive the right treatment. She noted that your age doesn’t matter, as perimenopause and menopause affects everybody at different ages.
She also urges physicians to learn more about menopause so they can better help their patients, and she encourages people to talk more about menopause and “celebrate” these changes instead of shaming or hiding them.
While menopause symptoms can be scary, she believes the process is “a beautiful thing” that pushes people to better understand who they are and what they value. She encourages her patients to remember this and know that they do not have to manage on their own.
“You are not crazy,” McConkey added. “You are not alone. There have been many women before you and after you who will feel what you are feeling right now. There is definitely something that can be done to make you feel better, and whatever you’re feeling will pass.”
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.
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