FRIDAY, May 12, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Hearing loss has been linked to several factors associated with menopause, a new study says. One factor is your age at menopause. An older age is tied to a higher risk of hearing troubles. And, a second factor is the use of oral hormone therapy to ease some of the symptoms of menopause. The researchers also found that the longer a woman used hormone therapy, the greater the odds of hearing issues. Hearing loss was already known to be more common in women after menopause, a time when natural hormone levels drop. Because of this, doctors had suspected that the use of oral hormone therapy might offer some protection against menopause-linked hearing loss, the researchers said. "The finding from this observational study that women who underwent menopause at a later age and used oral hormone therapy had greater hearing loss was unexpected but should lead to more testing in a randomized, clinical trial," JoAnn Pinkerton, executive director of the North American Menopause Society (NAMS), said in news release from the group. The current study can only show an association between hearing loss and hormone therapy or older age at menopause. It wasn't designed … Continue reading →

Several studies have suggested that menopause may increase the risk of hearing loss, possibly due to lower estrogen levels, and that postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy might slow the decline. But researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital found that hormone therapy actually increased the risk of hearing loss. Researchers examined links between menopausal status, oral hormone therapy, and risk of self-reported hearing loss in more than 80,000 women in the Nurses' Health Study II. During the 22-year study period, 23 percent of the participants developed hearing loss. Although no significant association was found between menopausal status and the risk, using postmenopausal hormone therapy was linked to a higher risk of hearing loss. The longer women used hormone therapy, the greater their risk. "Our research focuses on identifying preventable contributors to hearing loss," said lead author Dr. Sharon Curhan. "Although the role of sex hormones in hearing is complex and incompletely understood, these findings suggest that women who undergo natural menopause at an older age may have a higher risk. In addition, longer duration of postmenopausal hormone therapy use is associated with higher risk. "These findings suggest that hearing health may be a consideration for women when evaluating the risks and benefits … Continue reading →

Seven area restaurants will support womens health organizationPlanned Parenthood on Tuesday, May 16, through the third annualChow for Choice initiative. That day, each participating eatery will donate 10 percent of the days proceeds directly to the organization. Its a great way to engage locally owned restaurants, says Nikki Harris, director of philanthropy for Planned Parenthood in Western North Carolina. Its very generous, and its pretty wonderful when you have businesses that not only support Planned Parenthood, our mission and what we do, but they also kind of do it publicly, which is really very cool. This years participants are The Admiral, Bouchon, Copper Crown, Chiesa, The Hop Ice Cream Caf, The Hop West, Plantand Smoky Park Supper Club. We actually have more restaurants now than we ever have, says Harris. Some are new, some have supported us for a long time, and were always looking to expand our network of people that are engaging with our mission. Chiesa owner Melissa Willingham says shes happy to have her business on board. They are friends and neighbors of ours, and they do a lot for womens health, and we support them wholeheartedly, she says. Its important to keep funding them so that … Continue reading →