One size fits all attitude toward treatment

It’s bad enough that many doctors believe they’re solving health problems by simply writing one prescription after another. But it’s far worse when they do this with inappropriate medications.

A recent UK poll of 2,000 women reveals that doctors tend to regard menopause with a one-size-fits-all attitude toward treatment. Results show that doctors spent only 10 minutes or less with 90 percent of the women between the ages of 45 and 55. Half of these women said they thought doctors were indifferent to their concerns.

And this is the statistic I found most troubling: One third of the women reported that their doctors had simply prescribed antidepressants to address menopause symptoms.

Discussing the poll, menopause specialist John Moran, M.D., told the Daily Mail that it takes a full hour to ask all the questions required to assess proper treatment. Most doctors, however, are much too busy to devote more than a small fraction of an hour to their patients. The resulting one-size-fits-all approach means that many women who receive pharmaceutical hormone replacement therapy (HRT) end up getting the wrong amount of estrogen.

The survey also showed that 90 percent of the respondents were worried about HRT dangers revealed in recent trials. When asked about natural alternatives to synthetic HRT, most of the women said they were unaware of these options.

Sources:
“Doctors ‘Too Busy’ to Deal with Menopause” Daily Mail, 10/17/05, dailymail.co.uk