MENOPAUSE - DISEASE STATE OR STATE OF NATURE - IMPLICATIONS FOR MOLECULAR MEDICINE

Menopause is a universal transition for women who live long enough, ye t even today surprisingly little is known about the range of normal ex perience or the factors that might affect it. The associated physical changes can result in temporary symptoms for some women and an increas e in the risk factors for common diseases in most postmenopausal women . These deserve investigation by molecular medicine, but the use of th erapies or screening derived from these data will also depend on cultu ral views of whether menopause is 'a disease to be treated in all wome n'.