One of the many things that women in Malaysia have on their minds is the thought of going through menopause. This can be a very distressing time, with bodily changes and other side effects. FONCTIO looks beyond the traditional treatments, and offers a different, gentler way of treatment for menopause for all Malaysians.

Menopause is defined as the permanent cessation of menstruation. The age at which menopause occurs is around 45 to 55 years old. It’s recognized after absence of menses for 12 months.

Causes of menopause

Female is born with a lifetime’s supply of follicles in their ovaries. Follicles are small sacs in the ovaries, containing an egg. In every menstrual cycle, several follicles develop but only one will reach maturity and produce an ovum (egg). The rest of the follicles fade away. Therefore, as age is increasing, the number of follicles in the ovaries diminishes. Eventually, when the ovaries run out of follicles, they cease to function permanently. That’s the time menopause occurs.

Menopause is preceded by a transition period, where there is increased variability in menstrual cycle length. It is because of the fluctuation of the estrogen level, affecting the length of the menstrual cycles. These menstrual irregularities can last over 2 to 3 years. When menopause occurs, it’s often not recognized because of the menstrual irregularities. It’s recognized 1 year after the absence of menstrual cycles.

Symptoms

Women start to experience a wide range of symptoms during the menopausal transition. The symptoms are the result of hormonal fluctuations.

• Hot flushes
• Sleep disturbance
• Weight gain
• Mood swings
• Irregular periods
• Breast pain
• Depressed
• Headache
• Sweating

Frightening Facts

Not accepting the facts about menopause, unfortunately, doesn’t make the damage that it can cause go away.

During menopause, a woman’s ovarian function ceases to do what it should be doing. This then causes her estrogen and progesterone levels to drop dramatically, leading to various health issues, which many women in Malaysia are facing.

What do the hormones estrogen and progesterone actually do? They provide women with their feminine appearance, enhance a woman’s sexuality, and enable pregnancy. These hormones also regulate the mind, emotions, and sleep, as well as maintaining the health of the heart, brain, bones, and muscles.

Going through menopause, can, if not treated well, lead to various issues such as memory loss, depression, heart attacks, weight gain and a loss of self-esteem.

Helping Yourself

There are steps that can be taken to assist you during this period of your life. Strengthen your bones, joints, and muscles with supplements, and strength and agility training.

Eat nutritious meals, limiting your carb intake, while getting the protein you need from nuts, meat, seafood, and beans. Antioxidant food like cruciferous vegetables and berries are also very beneficial. These foods are easily available in Malaysia, providing adequate nutrition to enhance treatment effectiveness for menopause.

Calm you mind down by doing stretching exercises, meditating, and doing deep breathing exercises. Regulating your sleep patterns is also of great value.

Try to get to sleep before midnight, and try waking up at the same time every day. Put your devices down at least 45 minutes before you plan on sleeping. Give your eyes and brain a rest.

Seek for professional help. You will get all the information that you need in regards to manage menopause, with guidance on nutrition and hormone, which will allow you to make an informed decision.

Conventional Hormone Therapy

Hormone therapy is commonly used as menopause treatment in Malaysia. It is an excellent way of replacing the very important depleted hormones, which gives symptomatic relief, as well as helping with the other dangers that are inherent in menopause.

Conventional hormone therapy uses synthetic hormones, which are derived from animals or androgens. Excess amounts of androgens can pose a problem, resulting in such virilising effects such as acne, hirsutism (excess hair growth in ‘inappropriate’ places, like the chin or upper lip) and thinning of hair on the head (balding).

Long term use of these treatments have, unfortunately, been linked to breast cancer, heart attacks, thrombosis and strokes. It’s enough to put anyone off using hormone therapy as a menopause treatment for Malaysians

Another Way

We, at FONCTIO, treat menopause in a different way. We still use hormone treatments, but what we use is called transdermal bio-identical preparation.

Transdermal delivery represents an attractive alternative to oral delivery of drugs, is poised to provide an alternative to hypodermic injections, and has proven to be safe without any nasty side effects.

Hormones which are taken via an oral route have to first go through a liver metabolism before entering the body’s system. The liver metabolises the hormones and turns them into metabolites. This process has the net result of reducing the effectiveness of the treatment.

Going the transdermal route allows the hormones to be directly absorbed into the body through the skin, by-passing liver metabolism. Bio-identical preparations are plant-based, and the hormones are chemically identical to the hormones in our body. What all this means is that getting the treatments is simple, more effective and quite importantly, safe for you.

First Things First

Taking a test. No one likes tests, do they? This one, however, is one that will be of great benefit to you. It is a test which will assess your various hormones, how they are functioning, and the role they are playing in contributing towards your well-being.

A total of 81 tests will be conducted from the sample taken, which will reveal things like your cardiovascular risk markers, and the levels of your 10 specialised hormones which cover brain, thyroid, energy, and sexual function.

FONCTIO doctors, trained in Functional Medicine, will guide you through the results, and will create a personalised plan for you to tackle the issues that your menopause is creating.

Don’t let menopause make you pause with your life. It’s time to take control. It’s time for you to be you again. It’s time for you to embrace a menopause treatment in Malaysia that will show it who’s in charge. It’s time.