Menopause in Plastic Surgery Patients: an Underrecognized and Undertreated Comorbidity.

Abstract

Nearly half of all plastic surgery patients are middle-aged cis-gender women, all of whom will experience menopause. While plastic surgeons do not treat menopause directly, it can be a concern-and even a motivating factor-for patients seeking plastic surgery. Additionally, the changes associated with menopause underlie problems that many plastic surgeons seek to address, including in facelifts, breast surgery, and vaginal rejuvenation. Hormone therapy has the potential to improve quality of life for women by treating bothersome symptoms and delaying the physical changes brought on by loss of estrogen. However, recent reports in the media highlight that women face significant barriers to accessing menopause care due to a lack of trained providers willing to manage hormone therapy, as well as historical fears regarding increased cancer risk, which recent evidence suggests were overestimated. Plastic surgeons may be the first, or only, providers with whom women discuss how their bodies change with age. As a result, plastic surgeons should consider menopause as an underlying risk factor or comorbidity for any woman presenting with ageing-related complaints, and to ensure that these patients have access to appropriate menopause care in their communities. This is especially important for surgeons offering vaginal rejuvenation therapies, given that locally-acting topical estrogen is a safe and highly-effective treatment. Here we present guidance and recommendations for how plastic surgeons should take menopause into account when evaluating and advising patients. Additionally, we present a treatment algorithm for safe prescribing of locally-acting hormone therapy for vaginal rejuvenation.