The Climacteric: Proceedings of the Fourth Jan Palfijn Symposium, European Conference on the Menopause, Held in Antwerp, Belgium, on September 1-2, 1983, Under the A

THE JAN PALFIJN SYMPOSIA In 1979 the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the Jan Palfijn Hospital in Merksem, Antwerp, celebrated its 25th Anniver- sary. To mark the occasion, the first symposium was organized, the theme chosen being hysteroscopy. Thanks to the cooperation of specialists from both within and outside Belgium the event attracted such a large attendance that it was decided to follow up this first venture with others. In the light of the experience gained from the first symposium, we established the Jan Palfijn Foundation for Gynaecological and Obstetrical Didactics, the reasons for this being budgetary and, in particular, organizational. This approach made it possible to attract the cooperation of enthusiastic fellow workers from outside the hospital on a permanent or ad hoc basis and hence to reach a much wider group of experts in all fields, both at home and abroad. In 1981 the second symposium was held at the Jan Palfijn Hospital, the topic being echography in obstetrics and gynaecology. Almost all of the Belgian universities were represented and papers were presented by confreres from practically all of the EEC countries. When the third symposium was held, in 1982, again on hysteroscopy, the speakers and audience could literally hardly be squeezed into the Jan Palfijn Hospital's facilities. The fourth symposium was accordingly organized in the modern, luxurious facilities of the new administration building of the Antwerp Provincial Authority.

Table of Contents:
1 Introduction to hormonal therapy in the perimenopause.- 2 Second Jan Palfijn Lecture. Menopause: the beginning of a curable disease or a lucky phenomenon?.- 3 The climacteric in different cultural contexts.- 4 The view of the woman.- 5 Factors influencing oestrogen production and metabolism in postmenopausal women with endocrine cancer.- 6 Steroid hormone receptors and their changes in the perimenopause.- 7 Clinical significance of the binding between oestrogens and intra-and extracellular proteins.- 8 Sex steroids and lipoproteins.- 9 Oestrone sulphatase activity in normal and pathological endometria.- 10 Considerations on the output of pituitary gonadotrophins in the perimenopause.- 11 Problems of the untreated menopause.- 12 The perimenopausal woman: guidance and treatment.- 13 Oral oestrogen treatment of the climacteric and the postmenopausal period.- 14 Percutaneous oestrogen therapy.- 15 Clinical effects of vaginally applied oestrogens.- 16 Hormone implants in women following hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy.- 17 Osteoporosis and its treatment.- 18 Early diagnosis of osteoporosis.- 19 Interrelation of oestrogen and the major calcium regulating hormones.- 20 Risks of endometrial and mammary cancer morbidity and mortality in long-term oestrogen treatment.- 21 Cardiovascular impact of therapy and risks.- 22 Perimenopausal oestrogen therapy and breast cancer.- 23 Effects of postmenopausal treatment on lipoproteins.- 24 Benefits of progestogen therapy in the postmenopause.- 25 Hysterectomy in The Netherlands.- 26 Prophylactic oophorectomy at hysterectomy for benign pathology.- 27 Gynaecological surgery in women aged 65 years and over.