Abstract

YABUR, Juan Antonio. La menopausia puesta al día. Gac Méd Caracas [online]. 2006, vol.114, n.1, pp.1-12. ISSN 0367-4762.

Summary Populations are in a frank aging process. In the world, there are around 700 millions of women with more than 50 years old. In Venezuela the 9.4 % of the total population, approximately 2.2 millions, is represented per by women having 45 or more years old, and a life expectancy of 74.73 years. What implications does it have to prolong life further on the menopause? This increment in the expectations of life, oblige us to understand and search for solutions to the related problem like the presence of certain degenerative illnesses, like cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, Alzheimer disease and breast and endometrial cancer. All of them related with the substitution of estrogens, which reduces approximately 34 % the risk of osteoporotic fracture. The possibility of raising the risk of cardiovascular disease, breast cancer and other forms of cancer with the prolonged use of hormonal replacement therapy is a topic for study and discussion. In the analyzed subjects, the average age for the spontaneous menopause was 48.7 years old, and the 83 % of these women, reported severe climacteric symptoms, with deterioration in the quality of life. With the replacement therapy the symptomatology disappeared in the first 4 weeks of treatment