[Menopause: a disease?]

As life expectancy lengthens, the period that women must live deprived of estrogens is also lengthened. Not only does this hormonal deficit produce the known vasomotor symptoms, but it also increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and bone fractures. The fact that replacement therapy using hormones during the postmenopause attenuates these risks has lead to the thought that we might be facing a disease. Moreover, menopause meets the criteria that define disease. In spite of considering that to define menopause as a disease might be daring, we cannot rule it out.