Dr Zachary Nash receives funding for study to predict surgical menopausal outcomes

Dr Zachary Nash, a Clinical Research Fellow in Reproductive Medicine at UCL EGA Institute for Women’s Health and his team are running a feasibility study to predict which women will experience persistent menopausal symptoms after having risk-reducing surgery for ovarian cancer (removing fallopian tubes and ovaries).

All women and people with ovaries who  have a BRCA 1 or 2 gene alteration are offered surgery to reduce their risk of ovarian cancer, which removes their fallopian tubes and ovaries (a bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy). This surgery is done before the average age of menopause.  

Those who do have the surgery will go into a surgical menopause. This menopause is sudden and often has more severe symptoms than natural menopause. For most women, the symptoms of surgical menopause can be managed with hormone replacement therapy (HRT), but around half will have persistent menopausal symptoms that can have a significant impact on their quality of life, like hot flushes, difficulty sleeping, anxiety, or memory problems (‘brain fog’). The worry about menopausal symptoms can create a barrier to women going for the surgery, leaving them at a higher risk of ovarian cancer.  

To try and address these concerns, the team will recruit up to 30 participants who will be put in a temporary menopause for three months, using medication that is commonly used to treat conditions like endometriosis. The participants will be given HRT and asked to record their symptoms. This first small-scale project will help the team know if this area is worth further research and give them the initial data they need to go for larger pots of funding. 

Further links

• Dr Zachary Nash’s academic profile
• UCL EGA Institute for Women’s Health
• Faculty of Population Health Sciences
• The Eve Appeal

Image

• Main image: Dr Zachary Nash
• Image and Video Credit: The Eve Appeal