The Change of Life
The menopause and the problems it brings are very rarely talked about openly, yet in Britain alone there are nine million postmenopausal women, and a large number of them will be suffering from hot flushes, night sweats, depression and sexual problems. Up to now few of these women will have asked for, or received, any treatment, yet for 40 years there has been a therapy available. It involves giving women the female hormone oestrogen, to replenish their own natural but diminishing supplies. Yet even today this treatment is highly controversial. Many doctors have argued that it is both ineffectual and dangerous.
Tonight's Horizon investigates this controversy and asks whether a majority of women must resign themselves to the problems of the menopause, or whether there is an effective treatment.
Narrator FRANK GILLARD
Editor PETER GOODCHILD
Producer STEPHEN ROSE
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