World Menopause Day 2024

By choosing this theme, the International Menopause Society aims to raise awareness around menopause and MHT, helping people make informed choices and improve health and wellbeing.

At Sexual Wellbeing Aotearoa we’re here to help you manage your menopause symptoms and your sexual and reproductive health before, during, and after menopause. We can prescribe menopause hormone therapy (MHT) to manage menopause symptoms. And we can give advice on sex at menopause, including giving you contraception. 

Menopause means “the end of monthly cycles”. It happens when your menstrual cycle stops — often between the ages of 45 and 55. If you haven’t had your period for 12 months, you might be beginning menopause. At menopause, your oestrogen levels drop, your ovaries stop releasing eggs, and your period stops.

Menopause affects everybody differently — your symptoms might be mild, absent, or severe.

The most common symptoms of menopause are hot flushes and night sweats. Severe hot flushes and night sweats can disrupt sleep — making you tired and irritable. 

Other symptoms of menopause can include:  

• A poor sleep pattern due to night sweats 
• Vaginal dryness — which can lead to painful sex 
• Loss of libido 
• Itchy skin 
• Mood changes

If menopause begins before the age of 40, it is called premature menopause.

Premature menopause can run in a family, or be caused by an infection, immune disorder, or chromosomal variation. Smoking has been linked to premature menopause. Surgical removal of the ovaries, or some cancer treatments, can cause premature menopause. Symptoms of menopause can be more severe and sudden in those cases.  

Menopause symptoms are often treated with hormone therapy. 
Some alternative therapies may reduce the symptoms of menopause — but studies often provide conflicting evidence on their effectiveness.

Menopause hormone therapy (MHT) is an effective treatment for menopause. At menopause, your hormone levels can drop or become unstable. MHT replaces the oestrogen — and sometimes the progesterone — that your body is now producing very little of. MHT comes as pills, creams, or patches.

If you want to talk about starting MHT, make an appointment with us. We can help you work out what to do.  

There’s currently a limited global supply of oestradiol patches, with PHARMAC suggesting shortages in New Zealand could drag into 2025.   

Dr Beth Messenger, Sexual Wellbeing Aotearoa Medical Director, says the issue, which has been ongoing for the last two years, is a global shortage of patches – demand for the patches is far outstripping global manufacturing capacity.  UK data over five years show an increase from 1.5 million to 3.5 million users – that gives you a sense of the scale of increase.  

“It feels like the world woke up from COVID and went ‘menopause sucks’. We’ve got a way of managing it and we should be using it,” she says. “The issue is an increase in demand, rather than a decline in production.” 

Unfortunately, the current shortage means that many clients can find it difficult to get their prescription filled. 

Learn more about the limited supply of oestradiol patches