Can Cancer Treatment Trigger Early Menopause?
Women, it’s inevitable. The hot flashes, mood changes, irregular periods and more.
We’re talking menopause. It’s the stage in which a woman’s menstrual period stops permanently. Menopause is diagnosed once a woman has gone 12 months without a period. Typically, this happens around age 51.
What Are the Symptoms Of Menopause?
So how do you know when menopause is happening?
Symptoms include:
- Irregular periods
- Hot flashes
- Mood changes
- Vaginal dryness
- Trouble sleeping
When it comes to menopause and cancer, going through cancer treatment can trigger early menopause. According to Monica Avila, MD, a gynecologic oncologist at Moffitt Cancer Center, this is more commonly seen in patients closer to the age of 52.
Losing Your Period During Treatment
Early menopause during cancer treatment can be the result of damage to the ovaries. Ovaries create hormones that play a critical role in regulating a woman’s menstrual cycle.
“The cause is believed to be linked to something called the HPO access, or the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis, and that’s basically a series of cascading hormones that go from the top of your head down to the ovaries, and those hormones can get shut down at a central and peripheral level with chemotherapy,” Avila said.
In some instances, patients can become perimenopausal and then resume menstruation after treatment.
“We know that the younger you are at the time of your cancer diagnosis, the more robust your ovaries seem to be,” Avila said. “The younger a patient is, the more likely they are to get their ovarian access back and have regular periods.”
For those who do not regain menstruation, there are ways to reduce the side effects of menopause.
Menopause Management
Here are several approaches to keeping menopause symptoms in check:
- Diet. Experts recommend eating nutrient-rich foods and maintaining a balanced diet.
- Exercise. Staying active has been shown to improve sleep, regulate body temperature and reduce stress.
- Non-hormonal medications. Specific non-hormonal medications can help with symptoms like severe hot flashes.
- Hormone replacement therapy. According to specialists, this treatment can alleviate symptoms like hot flashes, vaginal dryness and night sweats.
Hormone replacement therapy replaces hormones that are lost during menopause. It can help with menopause symptoms like vaginal dryness and hot flashes.
“There’s a large range of cancers that we can use hormone replacement therapy on,” Avila said. “People sometimes say you can never have hormone therapy after having a gynecologic cancer, but that’s not true. In many ovarian cancers and cervical cancers, there is robust data that shows you can use hormone replacement therapy safely and responsibly.”
What About Fertility Preservation?
Fertility preservation for women before starting cancer treatment often involves egg or embryo freezing.
“We can usually harvest eggs early and have a reservoir of eggs and/or embryos that the patient can keep for later, whether they use a surrogate or not,” Avila said. “For uterine cancer specifically, when it’s in an early stage, I have several patients who are being treated with intrauterine devices to try to maintain that fertility. Overall, there are many options out there and I think we have an obligation to bring this topic up when we are talking to our patients.”
If you are experiencing symptoms of menopause while undergoing cancer treatment, talk to your oncologist about how you can manage the discomfort.
