How a Hotter World Will Impact Menopausal Women
Menopause is about to get a lot worse for a lot more women
This summer saw the hottest July on record — perhaps the hottest-ever month in 174 years of record-keeping, according to scientists.
We know what that means as far as drought, wildfires, power-grid outages, rising seas, and other heat-related disasters. And we know that an increasingly hotter world impacts the most vulnerable — the old, the sick, the poor. And, perhaps, not surprisingly, women.
That’s because women are more likely to live in poverty than men, have fewer basic human rights in many parts of the world, and suffer more violence during periods of instability — just ask Handmaid’s Tale author Margaret Atwood. But it goes beyond that. A hotter world directly affects our bodies and health in different ways than it affects men.
Climate and environmental changes are impacting everything from the onset of a girl’s puberty to her fertility to pregnancy and neonatal outcomes to lactation and menopause.
While most of the studies have focused on the impact of climate change on reproductive and maternal outcomes, the impacts of a hotter climate on menopausal women’s health and well-being haven’t gotten as much attention.
