Talking your way through menopause
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About 5.5 million women in Canada experience menopause each year. But now there’s a new treatment available to women who are struggling with symptoms – and it doesn’t involve drugs, an alternative many women would prefer over popping pills. The new treatment has been studied by psychologists at Hamilton’s St Joseph’s Healthcare.
The treatment is called Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. It has been used for decades to treat mood, eating and chronic pain disorders, but for the first time it’s being used to treat women who have menopausal symptoms.
Beth Cuffaro, 57, is a nurse at St Joseph’s Healthcare. About four years ago she began to experience the symptoms of menopause. Along with hot flashes came some sadness.
“You get emotional and you really didn’t have a good reason to feel that way.”
Beth says she was ill-prepared for what was about to happen to her body and mind. “You can’t talk to anybody about it really, unless you have some elderly woman in your family like your mom who remembers you’re not really prepared and you don’t know what to expect.”
Sheryl Green is a psychologist at St Joe’s. She hopes CBT research she and her colleagues conducted will help alleviate the stresses of menopause. “It’s a psychological talk therapy. The program is 6-10 sessions in duration and happens weekly and you see a therapist for about an hour.”
There’s usually a group of six women in a session. It helps women going through menopause to redirect sad or depressing thoughts.
“This isn’t very pleasant but it’s tolerable, it’s temporary, I’ve worked through them many times in the past. I know what to do I know how to cope and i’ll get thru it again.”
Beth is comfortable with her symptoms now but would have tried the treatment a few years ago. “I’m far enough in to it now that I can mange it on my own, however I would suggest if this is an opportunity for other women I would say they should try it.”
There will be an information session on CBT at St Joe’s West 5th campus in Hamilton next week on Wednesday. If you are interested in the treatment and you access it through St Joe’s it is covered by OHIP. A warning though: there is a waiting list.
If you wish to get cognitive behavioural therapy through a private clinic you may get in faster, but it will cost you about $150-200 per session.
