I'm sorry, but this sounds like garbage to me.

"But if our grandmothers did not have such difficulty in facing this stage of life why do we modern women?"

My mother had a hideous time for years while undergoing menopause - she was tired the whole time, had frequent debilitating hot flushes, lost her hair and had poor skin. As a consequence she couldn't sustain her job.

My ex-neighbour who is now 90 has appalling bone density due to her loss of oestrogen. She is extremely frail as a consequence and has a very bad stoop.

Do not lose sight of the health benefits of HRT just because of some potential side effects

I am one of the lucky women.Sailed through the whole thing,no flushes,no mood swings and i take no hrt.Never felt better.I do remember my grandmother and her friends complaining about nasty symptons.I also remember many old ladies with massive widows humps.I do not believe the symptoms of menopause were any better or worse then.WE just have the knowledge to do something about it now.

I suspect that women today have more trouble with the idea of menopause than their foremothers - but, as the previous posters pointed out, physically things have not changed.

Shakespeare famously described the 7 Ages of Man. But historically for women there have only been 3 - Maid, Mother, Crone. The onset of menopause has been the significant portal into that last category: and in previous ages the physicality of so-called dowagers humps, loss of bone density and the associated outward signs of hormonal change propelled women visibly from the two thirds of their life in which they had value to society into their final phase. When life expectancy was so much shorter menopause was both a a physical and mental reminder of impending mortality.

With better diet, longer life expectancy, higher education and increased physical health women are living far longer and worthy lives post-menopause than they have ever done. Most are still working and expect to live active lives for many years to come. They have no desire to go sit by the fire nursing their ailments or to hobble around with walking sticks as their predecessors did.

The drug companies, without doubt, cashed in on this very real and lucrative market aided by media promotion of the youth culture.

The current crop of HRT has proved not to be the answer but this is no reason, I consider, to give up searching for effective therapies for the physical symptoms.

A whole lot more emphasis, however, should be placed on our societal outlook towards an ageing population of both sexes. The link between mind and body has proved conclusively that healthy attitudes result in overall better health for all of society so perhaps more emphasis should be placed on promoting this aspect of the menopause?

Well said Romany.

Women today are living longer than their grandmothers. The effects of osteoporosis was common not so very long ago, and hideous they were too.

The author is a woman. Has she never spoken to the older women in her life? It wasn't as openly spoken about to all and sundry as it is now, but that went for so much of the female 'condition', from menstruation, post partum depression to menopause that does not mean it didn't exist.

The only thing is that menopause, without reference to any symptoms, has been made into a 'disease' that can be 'cured' by pharmaceutical companies. This notion has been swallowed hook line and sinker by a largely male medical profession.

Consequently, large numbers of women were led to believe by their doctors that HRT was pretty well inevitable once menopause set in.

Believe me, menopause is wonderful. No more periods. Ahhhh. No more period pain and swallowing pills. Ahhhhhhh! I laugh out loud when I see the ridiculous prizes that sanitary napkins and tampons command. Previously I had no choice but to pay up. And I'm sure that the share prize of Nurofen has dropped since I've quit the 'monthlies'.

Some of the symptoms on the other hand, can be the pits. Mine have been very tolerable-mainly power surges (don't anybody dare call them hot flushes) that almost caused me to float out the bed. But then, who hasn't had the sweats on a hot night?

I've been lucky, like Haygirl. Some women have a very hard time and some women have a real chance of developing crippling osteoporosis. HRT has an important place, but every woman must grill her physician if s/he recommends HRT why for her. Are the reasons important enough for you to swallow, patch or cream when 90?

I am a male... over 60. My wife went through menopause about 15 years ago with the usual symptoms. She went on HRT. I actually didn't see that it made any great difference. Neither did she. She was on it for four years and stopped. Still no great difference.

I asked my mother about it, she said it was known about and that it affected some women and not others and that it was just considered part of being a woman.

There was a mention of the Dowagers Hump. I don't remember seeing any as I grew up. So I don't think it was all that common as was made out. One of my school friends developed a Dowagers Hump when she was about 15.

I spent a lot of time in South East Asia and didn't see any in the native peoples of that area. I haven't heard of it in New Guinea either. Any bent backs came from carrying horendous loads. These peoples didn't seem to suffer from Menopause. Is it purely a Western phenomenon?

about the "dowager hump" syndrome, according to Dr Bruce Ettinger, Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California and an endocrinologist: "...women shouldn't worry about osteoporosis. The osteoporosis that causes pain and disability is a very rare disease. Only 5% to 7% of 70- year-olds will show vertebral collapse; only half of these will have two involved vertebrae; and perhaps one-fifth or one-sixth will have symptoms. The fear of osteoporosis and the dowager hump was used by the drug companies to frighten women into taking HRT. Once it was known that oestrogen-only HRT was causing cancer then another reason had to be found to get women to fear the menopause and to take the drugs and osteoporosis was used and the picture of the bent over old women was used widely in advertising.