Menopausal Makeover Series: Part 1 – What is this Exactly?

You probably have never heard the term “Menopausal Makeover” before. I had never heard of it either. I give credit to my wife’s friend, Chris, who is struggling with menopausal issues, for bringing this concept and term  to my attention. A quick Google search did return this term from another excellent plastic surgeon, Dr. Robert Gartside, though we have different approaches to this concept.

What Chris recognized is that for women struggling with menopause, which can occur uncommonly in your 30’s, but more commonly in your 40’s and early 50’s, there are a host of hormonal changes, which contribute to all aspects of a woman’s life both emotionally and physically. I am not going to touch on areas outside of the area of plastic surgery. I would like to add that many of these women still feel young at heart and want to re-capture some or all of their youth. They realize that they cannot stay totally youthful but want to retain as much as they can – i.e. slow down and even reverse some of the changes of aging and menopause.

It goes without saying that no one can fully turn back the clock. regardless of how much money and effort you expend. Most everyone realizes that at 48 years old, you cannot look 28 years old. However, you can almost always be improved. Many of my patients in this position come in requesting a natural look that compliments you and is does not look “fake.” I don’t think I’m alone is not personally liking the overly-operated upon and overly Botoxed look that aging (and even non-aging) Hollywood stars have now made famous!

The problem is that as we age, there are a multitude of changes that all occur simultaneously. In general, each of our “solutions” can only address generally 1-2 aspects of this aging – thus there is no one simple fix. In the subsequent blogs in this series, I will discuss some of the aspects of a “menopausal makeover”.

Stay tuned: In the next article in this series,  I will discuss Botox for the post-menopausal patient.