Doctors have hit back at claims they have not done enough to treat menopausal symptoms, saying it is wrong to medicalise the life stage as a hormonal deficiency.

Melbourne obstetrician and gynaecologist Professor Martha Hickey and colleagues say portraying menopause as a medical problem that signals “decay and decline” could be having a negative impact on women.

“Although some women with troublesome menopausal symptoms benefit from menopausal hormone therapy, other effective treatments are available and a narrow focus on symptoms fuels negative expectations,” they wrote in the BMJ. 

“Women who adopt a medicalised view of reproductive events, including menopause, are more likely to report distress and attribute physical and mental changes to menopause rather than other causes.”