TRIBUNE/OPINION – My name is Michel Mouly. I am a gynecologist, oncologist and surgeon. A few months ago I published the book “Menopause, everything can change” published by Robert Laffont. I denounce, among other things, the immobility of the public authorities concerning the menopause. Following this, I was invited to the National Assembly, the Elysée and the Ministry of Health.
On site, I explain that menopause will be THE health hazard to come, unless the government wakes up. As I am in front of obviously very interested politicians, I ask them if they know how long the menopause lasts.
“Four years !” some tell me, “Five ?”, ask me others. I am flabbergasted. I remind you that I am in Parliament, at the Ministry of Health. And in a cabinet of the Élysée! I retort that the menopause lasts until the last breath, and leave the golds of the Republic, moderately reassured.
There followed telephone exchanges with these politicians, in which I was confirmed that something will be done for women. I breathe… Especially because I know, and hammer them that the pension reform will put women on the ground. Working two more years for a postmenopausal woman is not nothing, it can even cost her the life.
I’m not here to scare, but to say that 95% of them are not treated today. And that 70% will therefore have disorders or diseases resulting from their menopause:
- Cardiovascular diseases: 200 menopausal French women die from it every day.
- Alzheimer’s disease: 60% of postmenopausal French women are affected.
- Osteoporosis: 1 out of 3 postmenopausal women is affected.
- Depression: up to 30% of pre- or post-menopausal women
- Chronic insomnia: 60% of postmenopausal women.
- And I’m not talking about diabetes or cancers that can be avoided… if you treat women with a THM, hormonal treatment for menopause. Some will say that it is dangerous, relying on a 2002 study, which announced a carnage if we treated. This is false and fortunately, it has just been revealed. Several studies, in the most prestigious journals, now call for unrestrained treatment.
In all honesty, I doubt that this new recommendation was thought out for the good of women, by the political class, I mean… I rather think that we are worried about the cost linked to menopause in the years to come.
Because, in addition to letting women die when we could almost save them all, the fact of not treating them is expensive, very expensive: 5 billion euros just to treat osteoporosis in women in France.
In business, the absence of THM leads to a 60% drop in productivity according to the American newspaper Forbes. According to another study, just as recent and carried out in France, 51% of postmenopausal French women are negatively impacted on their work, and therefore suffer. And not just a little.
So I call for three things:
- That the government set up a massive campaign to alert women to their risks of menopause, without THMs.
- That it set up a free assessment for each woman at 50 (average age of onset of menopause).
- That it fully reimburse the THM as soon as it is set up, as it did for the Covid vaccine. Because the THM works… unlike the said vaccine which, if I’m not mistaken, does not stop the epidemic, does not prevent catching Covid, does not prevent catching it, infecting others or even dying of the Covid…