Words are often loosely bandied about regarding menopause without being explained or accurately understood, so let us define our terms.

The wrong definition of menopause, so popular with the media

A transient time-period during which women shift from a state of normality into a temporary state, a transient window during which symptoms such as hot and cold flashes occur, only to inevitably emerge a few years later, having survived & been made stronger by this so called 'passage', once more restored to a state of normality.  This is nonsense!

The true meaning of menopause

From juvenile, sub-female sex hormone levels the woman reaching adulthood becomes exposed to a stable, far from erratic estrogen environment, that spans from puberty until menopause.  At menopause (the word simply means the final naturally occurring menstrual period), the estrogen producing machinery goes into failure, & the woman shifts permanently from a condition in which estradiol is generous to one in which it has become depleted.  This state of hormonal depletion will continue until death unless hormone therapy is initiated.  Untreated estrogen depletion in turn activates the onset of a series of unavoidable, inexorable, cumulative processes which progressively promote the development of heart disease, stroke risk, osteoporosis, dementia, physical decline & a accelerated aging. Why wouldn't you want to treat them?