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Tuesday, January 14, 2003Many Japanese women have shocking stories to tell. At 51 Yuriko Yasuda started having terrible stomach pains, cystitis and dizziness. Her feet and hands became so stiff and numb that she could not even hold a pencil. She developed claustrophobia and fear of heights and speed. The first doctor she saw prescribed a different medicine for each ailment. The next gave her Chinese herbal medicines, but the symptoms continued. After much searching, she found a women’s hospital and was prescribed a variety and dosage of HRT that relieved her symptoms. Only women with extreme symptoms would think of visiting a doctor. Many suffer in silence. When Satsuki Kagiyama was 45, she began to feel weak, listless and suicidally depressed. She suspected the menopause but told herself to stop being self-indulgent. The last thing she wanted to do was to see a doctor. “Japanese gynaecologists are very rude,” she explains. “They are mainly men and talk very loudly so everyone can hear.” Eventually she developed cystitis and vaginitis and was forced to consult a doctor. “He said loudly, ‘It’s because you’re an old woman, it’s an old person’s disease’. The patients were all in one room, in curtained-off sections, so everyone could hear. Then he said, ‘I’ll prescribe something.’ He never told me what was wrong. Last May I had a breast cancer check. The doctor asked me what medicines I was taking. He had never heard of HRT and looked it up in a book.” posted by Sydney on 1/14/2003 07:56:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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