Menopause

Menopause is a natural biological process that occurs in all women. It is described as the process in which the female body ceases the reproductive cycle so that the individual can no longer bear children. Once thought of as a disease, menopause is simply a part of growing older for all women and unfortunately it can't be prevented. Sometimes referred to as the change of life or just "the change", it does not happen overnight and instead happens over a period of time, generally years. The symptoms of menopause may start as early as the late 30's or 40's and progress into the 50's however the timeframes and symptoms vary greatly from woman to woman.

During menopause the body starts to make changes that stop menstruation i.e. your monthly period. Just as the body prepared for childbearing years by making changes during puberty, the body now goes through hormonal changes to stop the reproductive cycle. Estrogen is the hormone that is primarily responsible for the reproductive cycle and as the menopause continues the estrogen levels decrease until they eventually shut down the entire reproductive cycle. These hormonal changes affect each woman differently and each individual will suffer with a unique set of symptoms.

Menopause begins with the gradual shrinking of the ovaries, which starts for the majority of women in their mid to late 40's. This signals the beginning of the prolonged process and over the next several years menopause will begin to speed up. The main factor involved in menopause is the loss of the sex hormone estrogen. Estrogen is one of the hormones that are produced by the ovaries and it is responsible for the production of eggs in the ovaries as well as the monthly period.

Estrogen contributes to the overall health of the body and in particular the bones, skin, blood and hair. It can even affect our moods and the swings that we commonly experience. Estrogen is produced in other areas of the body but to a much lesser extent and so as menopause progresses and the ovaries slowly shrink they begin to produce less and less estrogen which isn't compensated for by the other hormone producing areas.

This vital loss of estrogen causes many symptoms, some of which are common to most women. Some women unfortunately experience all of the common symptoms while others only have one or two. The degree to which you experience them will depend on you as an individual and will probably differ to those felt by your friends or members of your family. The thing to realize is that menopause is a natural progression for the female body; it happens to everyone and it cannot be stopped.

There are various ways to deal with the symptoms however, the first being to learn to recognize them. Once you know what is causing the situations you can more easily live with them. There are a number of natural remedies that can help soothe some of the symptoms but if you are having particular difficulty your doctor may recommend hormone replacement therapy (HRT), which aims to replace the missing estrogen in the body in an effort to ease the symptoms.

Menopause may last for several years as your body adjusts to the new hormone levels however once the levels are finally adjusted the symptoms will subside and the menopause will be complete.

Menopause Cause |