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HEALTHWATCH WITH NESITA KWAN
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Doctor Offers Women Flashy New Treatments
Injectable Menopause Treatment Being Done Only By Lipov
POSTED: 11:05 am CDT April 5,
2007
UPDATED: 1:22 pm CDT April 5,
2007
CHICAGO -- Millions of women suffer from severe mood swings and hot flashes associated with menopause and other causes of estrogen depletion.
Now, as Nesita Kwan reported, one Chicago-area physician believes he's found an easy, non-drug remedy for those symptoms.
"I always had hot flashes. When I was 30, I had a hysterectomy," Tammy Bengston said.
Bengston's surgically-induced hot flashes were bad enough. But when breast cancer struck three years ago, they turned into super-soakers, "as in being drenched, soaking wet, changing my pillow, changing my nightgown," she told Kwan.
Bengston blames the estrogen-depleting pills she has to take. They fight cancer, but they leave her body defenseless against the symptoms of menopause.
She said she was having a hot flash every hour, on the hour.
"It feels like my blood is boiling," Lori Lane said in describing her experience with symptoms of menopause.
Lane didn't have cancer, but her hot flashes were just as bad as Bengston's because of menopause.
"It just builds until the sweat starts to pop out and run," Lane said.
So, like Bengston before her, Lane went to see anesthesiologist and pain expert Dr. Eugene Lipov.
"By the time, I thiink, people have come to me, they have tried everything," the doctor said.Lipov is treating menapausal women by using an injection which he believes can reset the brain's thermometer to reduce or eliminate hot flashes. It's much like an epidural that some women get during labor, only this injection goes into a specific nerve in the neck. Kwan said similar shots can ease chronic pain in the arm and face.Lipov is the first and only doctor in the U.S. to target hot flashes.
To make the procedure more safe, he first injects a dye into the targeted area. Complications, like seizures, are rare and so far Lipov's patients have had no problems.The hot flash relief lasts from weeks to months, Kwan said, and Lipov said that almost all of the 22 women he's used the technique on have gotten some benefit.There's no formal study of the hot flash shots yet, but Lipov has published his early results in the Journal of Women's Health.
| Video: Menopause Treatment | |
Now, as Nesita Kwan reported, one Chicago-area physician believes he's found an easy, non-drug remedy for those symptoms.
"I always had hot flashes. When I was 30, I had a hysterectomy," Tammy Bengston said.
| Images: Hot Flash Treatment Video: Unique Treatment | |
Bengston's surgically-induced hot flashes were bad enough. But when breast cancer struck three years ago, they turned into super-soakers, "as in being drenched, soaking wet, changing my pillow, changing my nightgown," she told Kwan.
Bengston blames the estrogen-depleting pills she has to take. They fight cancer, but they leave her body defenseless against the symptoms of menopause.
She said she was having a hot flash every hour, on the hour.
"It feels like my blood is boiling," Lori Lane said in describing her experience with symptoms of menopause.
Lane didn't have cancer, but her hot flashes were just as bad as Bengston's because of menopause.
"It just builds until the sweat starts to pop out and run," Lane said.
So, like Bengston before her, Lane went to see anesthesiologist and pain expert Dr. Eugene Lipov.
"By the time, I thiink, people have come to me, they have tried everything," the doctor said.Lipov is treating menapausal women by using an injection which he believes can reset the brain's thermometer to reduce or eliminate hot flashes. It's much like an epidural that some women get during labor, only this injection goes into a specific nerve in the neck. Kwan said similar shots can ease chronic pain in the arm and face.Lipov is the first and only doctor in the U.S. to target hot flashes.
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