HEALTH OF WOMAN. 2020.3(149): 27-32
Review of the article «It is difficult to be a woman» (Bohdashevska O.V., Dzhenina O.V.)
«Non nocere». New Therapeutic Journal, №8, 2019

A modern obstetrician-gynecologist is well aware of how difficult it is to be a woman. From menarche to menopause, women live in a state of eternal struggle with purely female problems associated with the physiological cyclic state, and a number of domestic and production issues that have to be addressed daily. How to help a woman mitigate the unpleasant symptoms associated with female nature is well known. Precisely selected combined oral contraceptives (COCs) and drugs for menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) can provide patients with a high quality of life and “hormonal balance”. Despite the prevalence and accessibility of this knowledge, fears and misconceptions are still alive not only among patients, but also among doctors.
The reason for refusal from highly effective therapy or contraception may well be the patient’s complaints of heaviness in the legs, swelling, the appearance of vascular “stars” or “reticuli” of reticular veins. A significant prevalence of chronic venous diseases in the population inevitably confronts the obstetrician-gynecologist with the need to take these conditions into account in everyday clinical practice, especially since women come into the field of vision of phlebologists more often than men. Reducing the manifestation of unpleasant effects, providing a therapeutic effect on the veins and maintaining a high patient commitment to the use of reliable methods of contraception or MHT is not an easy but feasible task for an obstetrician-gynecologist.
Key words: combined oral contraceptives, menopausal hormone therapy, chronic venous insufficiency, varicose veins of the lower extremities, venous reflux, phlebopathy, diosmin.