14 DAY TRIAL // Two studies have recently shown that a woman increases her chances of facing depression as she approaches menopause. One of the studies measured the hormone levels in 231 women in the Philadelphia area for a period of eight years, discovering that the risk of experiencing melancholy grew as fast as the female hormones changed.
It was proved that women with a history of premenstrual syndrome are more likely to suffer from depression as they approach menopause. Even if most women reach menopause with no sign of depression, these studies prove that the transition may be change their behavior.
"Those who develop melancholy really need to be treated by a psychologist and take antidepressants. Hormone therapy may be helpful for some women," said Dr. Lee Cohen of Harvard Medical School, involved in the second study which looked at 460 Boston-area women for six years.
This second study took into consideration women with no prior history of depression in their 30s and 40s. The research revealed that those women approaching menopause were nearly twice as likely to develop symptoms of depression as opposed to women who did not experience changes in their menstrual cycle.
The women with higher risk of developing depression symptoms also went through stressful events like a family death or a divorce. "It isn't possible, in the reality of women's lives, to tease those things apart completely," said Cohen.