Menopause Overview

Menopause basically symbolizes the end of fertility and menstruation among women, and generally occurs at the age of 50 years. Almost 70% of the women feel its symptoms and while the rest 30% go through menopause, they don’t suffer the symptoms. Common symptoms of menopause include a feeling of sadness and emotional loss, hot flushes, mood swings and loss of sexual drive. Even though menopause is not a disease and just a phase in a women’s life, sometimes it affects the person badly.

A woman is said to have reached menopause after 12 months of her last menstrual period. If the menopausal symptoms begin to take a toll on your life and start affecting your well being, then it is in your best interest to seek a doctor’s advice without any hesitation. Nowadays, various kinds of treatments are available for menopause which vary from lifestyle adjustments to hormone therapy.

Medically speaking, a woman does not reach menopause till a year after her last period and in the intervening time she can experience many symptoms of menopause with varied intensity. The symptoms of menopause include irregular periods, decreased fertility, vaginal dryness, hot flushes, mood swings, an increase in abdominal fat, thinning of hair and sagging breasts.

The major cause of menopause is the decline of reproductive hormones as part of aging in a woman. There also exist certain other conditions or diseases that can induce menopause in a woman like hysterectomy (removal of uterus), bilateral oophorectomy (removal of both the ovaries), chemotherapy, radiation therapy etc.

The signs and symptoms of menopause are generally sufficient to indicate menopause in a woman but under certain circumstances the doctor may check levels of certain hormones like follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and estrogen through a blood test to confirm menopause. When menopause occurs, the FSH level begins to increase and estrogen levels begin to decrease. The doctor can also ask for testing the level of TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) because hypothyroidism can cause symptoms similar to those of menopause.

Menopause itself does not require any kind of medication. Instead, a woman can be treated for reliving the symptoms of menopause which cause discomfort. Hormone therapy is given to relieve them from hot flushes. Estrogen therapy is also popular for reliving hot flushes. Besides, there are some more types of medications available for treating menopausal symptoms.

Certain change in lifestyle can also make things easier for a woman during menopause like eating whole grains and fresh fruits, maintaining adequate sleep hours, avoiding caffeine, practicing relaxation techniques like breathing exercises etc. For overcoming vaginal dryness one can use over the counter vaginal ointments or moisturizers.

There are numerous alternative therapies available for the treatment of menopausal symptoms like taking pills of phytoestrogens, taking pills of vitamin E, black cohosh, yoga, meditation and some dietary supplements like licorice, chasterberry, evening primrose oil, wild yam etc.