Did you know the majority of people with MS will go through menopause?
Imogen is a PhD student in the Centre for Preventive Neurology at Queen Mary University of London. She chose to study menopause and MS because of an interest in health inequalities that impact women. She tells us about her work.
Around 75% of people with MS in the UK are women. The majority are aged between 20 and 40 at the time of their diagnosis. This means that most women with MS will experience menopause at some point after their MS diagnosis.
Why is this so important?
During menopause, people experience changes in their hormone levels. Hormones are chemicals that carry messages around your body. We know quite a bit about how hormonal changes can impact MS during some life events. For example, people with MS tend to experience fewer relapses during pregnancy.
But menopause has been a little neglected by MS research in the past. We still have a lot to learn about how people with MS are impacted by it. Encouragingly, more and more researchers are turning their attention to this topic!
What do we know about MS and menopause?
Not a lot - yet! Some studies suggest that MS might get worse after menopause for some people. However, other studies disagree.
Some researchers have looked into whether hormone replacement therapy (HRT) might be helpful for people with MS. HRT is used to top up your hormone levels during menopause. It can help with symptoms like hot flushes and night sweats. Some researchers think that HRT might even help to protect against MS progression. However, there are no clear answers so far - which is why we need to do more research.
What I’ve found out from people with MS
When I started my PhD, I didn’t know much about menopause. So I started to work with a brilliant group of women with MS who have experienced it themselves. They helped me understand some of the concerns that people with MS have around menopause.
They told me how difficult it can be to tell the difference between MS and menopause symptoms. Problems with things like sleep, mood, fatigue, memory and brain fog could be caused by either.
They also explained that both menopause and MS can affect things like their social life, work, family, and caring responsibilities.
Some people told me about difficulties with getting information and support around menopause and HRT. They explained that neither their GP nor their MS team have been willing to give advice. However, other people told me about brilliant support from all kinds of health professionals.
How will my research help?
I’m running two studies. In my first study, I’ve been interviewing people with MS about their menopause experiences. I want to find out what participants think about menopause and about treating menopause symptoms. For example, whether or not to use HRT.
For my second study, I’m working with the UK MS Register. We want to find out whether MS gets worse faster after menopause. And we also want to know if how bad your menopause symptoms are has any impact on your MS. To answer these questions, we’re going to ask people with MS to take part in a survey about their experiences of menopause. We’ll look at the answers from this survey alongside information about how their MS has changed over the years.
I hope to use the findings from my studies to improve support for people with MS during and after menopause.
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