With all that a woman needs to tolerate during menopause, surely the least she can enjoy is normal digestion. Eating is one of the pleasures of life and ask any woman who’s dealing with hot flashes, night sweats, and the like and she’ll tell you than any pleasure she can enjoy to mitigate the discomfort of all that will be very welcome. It’s unlikely that she’ll be eating super spicy foods, but even if not is there any chance of indigestion or other types of an upset stomach. This leads to asking can menopause cause acid reflux.  

GERD is the acronym for gastroesophageal reflux disease, and having stomach acid moving up into the esophagus to cause a burning sensation is the primary symptom of having this condition. Unfortunately, women are more likely to develop GERD while going through their menopausal years, and that’s because the hormonal changes they are experiencing at this time can weaken the esophageal sphincter. It’s understandable if you don’t know what that is, but essentially it’s the valve that shuts to keep the stomach contents in the stomach.  

So the answer for can menopause cause acid reflux is that yes it can, and that’s because one of those stomach contents – bile – can make it’s way into the esophagus when hormonal changes affect sphincter function during this time. It’s a shame that it works this way, but the human body is the way it is and you’ve got to take the good with the bad. That’s the reality of the situation with does menopause cause acid reflux, but if there’s an upside it's that menopause is only temporary.  

Quick Quell 

Most women will tell you thank goodness for that, and if we are to continue looking at can menopause cause acid reflux then it’s best to turn off and look at ways to best manage the condition. Again, menopause is only temporary so women aren’t going to have to deal with the burning sensation in their thorax forever. The obvious suggestion here is going to advise taking an antacid medication like Prilosec to mange acid reflux during menopause, and it’s fairly common to do this as there are not drug interaction risks between it and menopause treatment medications.  

It may also be helpful to make short-term changes to your eating habits too. Good suggestions are to eat slower and chew your food more thoroughly than you usually do, plus to avoid overeating. Another recommendation for managing acid reflux during menopause is to make sure you’re not eating anything up to 2 hours before you go to bed. Skip carbonated beverages entirely too, and of it goes without saying that overly spicy foods probably aren’t a good idea either.  

That’s the long and short of what you need to know for can menopause cause acid reflux. It can, but with an antacid medication and changes to the way they eat most women should be able to deal with it.