Vaginal dryness and Urinary Tract Infections at Menopause
Menopause can make you susceptible to vaginal dryness and urinary tract infections. Find out more from US Board US-certified ObGyn, and NAMS-certified Menopause practitioner, Dr. Deepali Kothary.
Transcript
Question MenopauseWize:
Women stop seeking help once their symptoms go away. But as you mentioned, osteoporosis and the other parameters continue to suffer, but they are silently happening in the background.
Answer Dr. Deepali Kothary, MD:
Yeah, they're actually pretty progressive. A lot of people have a lot of vaginal dryness that, you know, your tissue has a lot of estrogen and testosterone. And that it's just like the rest of your body, your, you know, your, your vulva, the vagina also, you know, decrease in estrogen, and then you have dryness, itching, burning. And one of the big things is recurrent urinary tract infections in the older population. And that's the big cause of morbidity and mortality because you end up going to, the ER with a UTI. It's very common in older populations and you know that's and you know, so urinary tract infection leads to sepsis and older people so, so one of the main reasons for that is the lack of estrogen in the vagina.
Question MenopauseWize:
So does that mean that if a woman experiences hot flashes or not, even if she doesn't have any symptoms, he should still be looking for some form of help when it comes to menopause?
Answer Dr. Deepali Kothary, MD:
So, so you know. Even if you don't have hot flashes or night sweats your bones are still you're still losing bone strength and so that is an important factor is talk to your doctor and say how do I prevent bone loss, what can I do? How much calcium can I take? If my family history is really bad, I have osteoporosis. Should I get a DEXA scan earlier than normal how much weight-bearing exercise should I do? You know so these are all factors irrespective of those obvious symptoms. There are still a lot of underlying body changes that are happening.
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