(NewsFix) A study shows that women who are disabled by polio have more trouble with the menopause than non-disabled women.
Polio is an illness which often affects children but whose symptoms – which are neurological in kind – may persist for many years. Doctors at the University of Michigan reveal how polio impacts on women going through the menopause.
They carried out a nationwide study covering half a million women in
the US with a history of polio and compared them to men with a history
of polio to see what impact menopause might have.
They found that the
more severe a woman’s post-polio symptoms were, the worse her menopausal
symptoms were. And while post-polio women approaching menopause were
more happy than their male counterparts, when they were going through
the menopause, the reverse was true.
And more post-polio women – 39 per
cent – used hormone replacement therapy than women without a history of
polio (the average rate for US women is just 21 per cent). The study
will, hopefully, raise awareness of the difficulties that polio
survivors may have with the menopause.
