After menopause many women develop several symptoms at once and then treat them separately. Dryness goes to one clinician, burning on urination to another, and repeated urinary infections get another course of antibiotics each time. In many cases these are a single condition, driven by falling oestrogen affecting vaginal, urethral and bladder tissue at the same time. It is described as genitourinary syndrome of menopause.
The cluster includes vaginal dryness, burning and itching, pain with intercourse, stinging on urination when cultures come back negative, urinary frequency or urgency, and urinary tract infections that recur more often than before. Unlike hot flushes, this cluster does not resolve on its own with time, and it tends to progress gradually when left unaddressed.
An important distinction: local vaginal oestrogen is a different treatment from systemic hormone therapy taken by mouth. Very little is absorbed into the bloodstream, and it is not grouped with the same risks. For women with specific medical contraindications there are other routes, including vaginal moisturisers and lubricants alongside pelvic floor care. Which approach suits you depends on your own history and should be decided with a doctor rather than from a headline.
See a doctor for any bleeding after menopause, which always needs assessment, for pain with intercourse that has led you to avoid it, for persistent burning on urination, for more than two or three urinary infections a year, or if over-the-counter products have not helped.