About Premature Ovarian Insufficiency (POI)

The causes for POI vary and may be genetic, following prior cancer treatment or past surgery, due to an autoimmune condition, or as a result of other rare health problems. For up to 90 per cent of women the cause is unknown.

The most common symptom is loss of periods or progressively lighter periods that are further apart. Associated symptoms include hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal dryness, mood changes, difficulty sleeping, decreased sexual desire, and difficulty conceiving. Some women do not have these associated symptoms.

The mainstay of treatment for POI is hormones. You may be prescribed hormone replacement therapy or the birth control pill in order to replace the hormones that are no longer being produced from your ovaries. This hormone replacement therapy is extremely important to prevent long-term cardiovascular and bone problems, and in general provides symptomatic relief and improves quality of life. Hormone replacement therapy is usually extremely well-tolerated and has few side effects.

Hormone replacement therapy does not have the same concerns as hormone therapy used in older women. It is replacement therapy, just as insulin is replaced in diabetic patients.

The doses we typically use for replacement therapy are about one fifth the potency of a birth control pill.

• Daisy Network

• Mount Sinai Fertility

• Women’s College Hospital POI Clinic *This clinic is a specialty clinic for women with Turner’s Syndrome.

• Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada - Menopause and U

• The North American Menopause Society - Perimenopause & Premature Menopause FAQS

• International Menopause Society – Fact Sheet from the Australian Menopause Society

• Vaginismus

• Carol Mitchell Chair in Mature Women’s Health - Sinai Health Foundation