Week 9 Discussion Women’s and Men’s Health, Infectious Disease, and Hematologic Disorders

Week 9 Discussion Women’s and Men’s Health, Infectious Disease, and Hematologic Disorders

From the presented case scenario, the 46-year-old female patient complains of hot flushing, night sweats, and genitourinary symptoms. She has a history of breast cancer and HTN. The patient also has a history of ASCUS about 5 years ago on her pap, other than that, Pap smears have been normal. Based on the presented description of symptoms and the patient’s age and sex, the possible diagnosis is menopause. Before recommending this diagnosis, it would be important for the provider to ask more questions concerning the symptoms and also conduct several diagnostic tests that would rule out other diseases that mimic menopause.

Menopause is a natural biological process that marks the end of a woman’s menstrual cycles. The condition mostly begins when a person in more than 45 years. According to the presented scenario, it illustrates that the patient is likely to be in the early stages of menopause since she is 46 years old. The treatment for this condition mainly focuses on relieving the symptoms as well as managing chronic conditions that may occur with aging. The recommended treatment, in this case, could include hormone therapy, low-dose antidepressants, gabapentin, clonidine, and vaginal estrogen. Estrogen therapy would be essential in relieving menopausal hot flashes (Fait, 2019). The dosage will be low to prevent severe side effects. Low-dose antidepressants related to SSRI would also decrease menopausal hot flashes (Johnson, Roberts & Elkins, 2019). Clonidine will be used to treat high blood pressure, considering that the patient has a BP of 150/90, which is considered high.

Concerning patient education, the patient should have adequate knowledge on the adherence of the recommended dosage to avoid the emergence of severe side effects. Besides, the patient should report back to the hospital within the recommended time for an effective follow up. Lastly, the patient should be educated on home remedies that would ease the symptoms. Such remedies include getting enough sleep, cooling hot flashes by drinking a cold glass of water, eating a balanced diet, and exercising regularly to attain the recommended body weight (Roberts & Hickey, 2016).

References

Fait, T. (2019). Menopause hormone therapy: latest developments and clinical practice. Drugs in context, 8.

Johnson, A., Roberts, L., & Elkins, G. (2019). Complementary and alternative medicine for menopause. Journal of evidence-based integrative medicine, 24, 2515690X19829380.

Roberts, H., & Hickey, M. (2016). Managing the menopause: An update. Maturitas, 86, 53–58. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1016/j.maturitas.2016.01.007