Menopause

What is menopause anyway?  Some people define it as being the time after a woman's menstrual cycle ends, but women that go through the process of natural menopause know that it is a period of confusion, hot flashes and moodiness that all starts before the periods end. 

There seems to be two stages in the process known as menopause.  The first stage is referred to as perimenopause.  During perimenopause the hormonal system is changing, producing less estrogen and progesterone while preparing your body for actual menopause.  This is the time that the symptoms appear which are sometimes mistakenly referred to as a woman's last period.  The actual occurrence is not really determined until a year after a woman has her last period. 

During perimenopause the symptoms are often referred to as being "menopausal".  This is confusing to a lot of women because they mistakenly assume the perimenopausal symptoms will last for the rest of their lives, when actually, they only last for 2 or 3 years and cease with the onset of menopause proper. 

Dr. Susan Love refers to menopause as "puberty in reverse".  When a woman goes into puberty, it is a time of great hormonal changes and fluctuations.  This can cause many symptoms such as bloating and mood changes.  When hormones shift and fluctuate it creates a time of symptoms.  This cycle happens again to women when the perimenopausal cycle starts, creating, you guessed it, a bunch of unpleasant symptoms relating to the hormonal changes. 

The specific symptoms which point to perimenopause include hot flashes, night sweats, insomnia, heavy bleeding and fibroids, mood swings, fluid retention, memory and brain function issues and headaches.  All these symptoms have to do with fluctuations in hormone levels.  Much like it did in puberty, your body and hormonal production is changing.  Your body tries to compensate for these changes by producing more or less of the hormones to balance things out.  For example, your estrogen levels may start to get lower then they had been at certain points in your cycle, so your body produces more and then you have symptoms of higher estrogen levels (skin breaking out, breast tenderness, increased vaginal lubrication.)

During perimenopause, your hormone levels are constantly changing from being too low to being too high.  Once you have actually entered menopause your symptoms of high estrogen will subside, but some of the symptoms of lower estrogen levels will linger with you for the rest of your life.  These symptoms include vaginal dryness, weight gain, changes in the skin and wrinkles, lowered libido (or sex desire) and urinary problems.  These symptoms can be countered by taking hormone replacement therapy, which will raise the levels of estrogen and progesterone in the body.  This therapy is not without the risk of causing other problems, so you should discuss the pros and cons of replacement hormones with your doctor. 

Just try to keep in mind that the more annoying side effects of the onset of menopause will diminish over time as your hormone levels settle down into what they will be for the remainder of your life.  You may not even notice that you are entering menopause until your periods stop completely.