Why Is Caregiving Making Menopause Worse?

Jason Resendez is the President and CEO of the National Alliance for Caregiving and Madhavi Vemireddy, M.D., is a family caregiver and the CEO of CleoNovember is National Family Caregiving Month.Let’s call her Maria. She’s 52, and she hasn't slept through the night in months. She spends her days balancing work with getting her father to his next neurology appointment and refilling her mother’s cancer medications. She’s been having hot flashes and mood swings that derail her workday. She suspects it’s menopause. What she doesn’t know — and what her doctor has never asked about — is that the 27+ hours a week she spends caring for her aging parents may be making those symptoms worse.New research from the Mayo Clinic suggests a strong link between the severity of menopause symptoms and the often invisible caregiving responsibilities millions of women shoulder in midlife. A cross-sectional study of more than 4,000 women between the ages of 45 and 60 found that women providing 15 or more hours of caregiving per week were 77% more likely to experience moderate to severe menopause symptoms than non-caregivers. The finding held up even after researchers controlled for potential confounding ...