Depression in Menopause

British Menopause Society Statement regarding this states –

“It has been known for more than a century that depression is more common in women that man. The question is whether this is due to environmental, social or hormonal factors.

An endocrine cause is suggested by the observation that this excess of depression occurs at times of hormonal change such as in the days before a period as premenstrual depression (PMS or PMDD) or in the weeks after pregnancy as postnatal depression (PND) and the years approaching the menopause as climacteric depression (CD).

This latter problem is at its worst in the few years before the cessation of periods – the transition phase.This subgroup of depressive disorders is called Reproductive Depression (RD) and are important because the causation is endocrine rather than psychiatric and the most effective and logical treatment is by hormones rather than antidepressants.”