Pause for thought: Taking the lead in women’s mental health

Whether it’s debilitating periods or depression during menopause, women with mental health problems are told to grin and bear it as their crushing emotions are “simply nature taking its course”.

But what we now know, and science has told us, is that many women of all ages are living with mental illnesses that may be related to female hormones and/or other unique parts of their biology.

See Monash Lens story featuring Professor Jayashri Kulkarni, published 20 October.

Why depression in women is so misunderstood

Identifying and treating menopausal depression is needed,
Professor Jayashri Kulkarni argues in her Nature Outlook essay

Professor Jayashri Kulkarni has published an essay in Nature Outlook, asking why depression in women is so misunderstood. The focus in this essay is on menopausal depression. She says it takes a huge toll, but is not widely recognised or adequately funded and is under-researched.

Professor Kulkarni writes, "Improving outcomes for people with menopause-related depression requires some significant changes. 

"Most importantly, psychiatrists and other mental-health practitioners who treat women in their 40s and 50s need to enquire about menopause at the outset of treatment, and be willing to prescribe hormone therapies. 

"In addition, clinicians and health-care students alike need to be better educated about this phase of women’s lives. A big part of clinicians’ reluctance to prescribe HRT for menopausal depression is the lack of knowledge about menopause — particularly how it affects the brain."

Read the essay: www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-02213-w

'Brain fog' during menopause is real – it can disrupt women's work and spark dementia fears

For nearly two-thirds of women, menopause comes with an undesirable change in memory.

Despite great progress in understanding the medical aspects of menopause – a natural part of life that occurs when a woman has not had a menstrual period for 12 months – we are only beginning to recognise the experience and impact of cognitive changes during menopause.

See The Conversation article (December 14) by Caroline Gurvich, Chen Zu and Shalini Arunogiri.

Participants sought: Depression in menopausal women

We are seeking women to participate in a study on depression in menopausal women. The title of the study is "Double-Blind Randomised Investigation of Tibolone Alone or in Adjunct to Standard Antidepressant Treatment for Depression in Menopausal Women".
All women experience menopause, and a significant number of those women experience ongoing, severe depression during this time. Many women with this type of depression are treated with standard antidepressant medication. However, standard antidepressant medication has only shown small improvements. Hormone treatments which directly target the changes to reproductive hormone systems may be a better overall treatment of perimenopausal depression.

MAPrc study probes dark side of perimenopause

Suicide rates are alarmingly high among middle-aged women, and under-recognised and under-treated perimenopausal depression could be the culprit, says Professor Jayashri Kulkarni, director and founder of the Monash Alfred Psychiatry centre (MAPrc), in an interview posted on the MAPrc site.

Professor Kulkarni discusses early research she and her team have conducted into the hormone therapy Tibolone for addressing depression, which was “very encouraging”.

MAPrc are currently recruiting participants for a study into this.
Click here for more information about the research and to read The Medical Republic interview.