Lenore Pomerance : Menopause Counseling : Articles

12.2.2004: Testimony before FDA Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs in its discussion of the use of testosterone patches for women.

8.23.04: "How Children and Parents Navigate the Empty Nest Syndrome" from The Georgetowner/Downtowner

The empty nest syndrome is a term that has come to describe the feelings of sadness and loss that many parents, particularly women whose identity centers on child-raising, feel when their young adult children leave home for the first time. It marks a profound transition in family life. As “empty nest” implies, parents are looking at the end of the intense child-rearing task that dominated the couple’s life for a good twenty years. There can be strong ambivalent feelings. Parents can feel rueful, sad and nostalgic. Rueful that there were things they never got to experience or give their children. Nostalgic about that baby, toddler, child and teenager that is suddenly a young woman or man. They also feel great pride and excitement.

8.12.04: "The Empty Nest Syndrome is not a Mental Disorder" from The Georgetowner/Downtowner

The empty nest syndrome is a response to a huge transition that occurs in family life. Like other life transitions experienced in the family, every member is affected. For the child leaving home for the first time there is both fear and elation. The fear is about not knowing whether or not they are ready, not knowing whether or not they are going to the right place. Elation is the feeling knowing they are on the threshold of an adventure into the rest of their lives. If there are still younger siblings, there is sadness at losing the mentoring their older sibling represented, and excitement that they get to take on the role of the older sibling at home.

The hot flashes may overwhelm, the eyes may not be as sharp and the knees often rebel. But oh the gifts of middle age. Yes, gifts. Big gifts. ... Lenore Pomerance, a Virginia therapist who studies and writes about menopause and midlife, says Ourselves is indeed on to something. Women in this age group, she said, do ask a lot of questions: Am I in the right marriage? Should I have focused more on my career? Was it harder to have kids than I thought? ''There is something about seeing the horizon. Of course, some see it more than others,'' Pomerance said.

(To read the entire article, click here.)

10.23.02: Public Statement to the Scientific Workshop Menopausal Hormone Therapy

The raging debate about the health risks and benefits of hormone therapy comes out of the medical model in which menopause is treated as a disease. In the more holistic Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) model, menopause is seen as a natural condition. Under the holistic model medications and lifestyle changes are given equal weight in treating menopausal symptoms. I believe treating women holistically relieves the pressure on the physician to solve all problems of menopausal mid-life women, and offers women the services of health practitioners with expertise in mental health, nutrition, and physical therapy.

Menopause is the time when the production of hormones, chiefly estrogen and progesterone, dramatically decreases, bringing an end to the menstrual cycle and fertility. While many women welcome the cessation of menstruation, they may not have realized how strongly it was connected to their self-image of being feminine and sexual.