Embracing Menopause
The word menopause has a Greek origin, as the prefix “meno”
is derived from the root word “men”, meaning month,
and the latter half of the word “pause” comes from the Greek word
“pausis”, meaning cessation or stopping.
Menopause is the change in a woman’s monthly physiology that
results in the decreasing of the ovaries and eventually an end to
menses (periods). For
millions of women this stage of life signals an end to childbearing
years and a new stage of life that can be equally as rich and
rewarding. Menopause may
be natural, artificial or premature and with this event there are many
menopause-related changes that may have lifestyle consequences or
which may affect the ability to achieve optimum health.
Although each woman is unique, there are many issues common to
all women in or after the menopausal experience.
This month I will write a four part series to teach women about
some of the short-term disturbances related to the menopause
transition and will address some of the major health issues that
post-menopausal women face so that they may proactively improve their
long-term health and quality of life.
When it comes to menopause, one size does not fit all.
Some women may be entirely asymptomatic and others may feel as
if their bodies have become possessed by some demonic force.
Although women who experience menopause-related changes may
feel that they are alone in experiencing “strange symptoms”, there
are approximately 25 million women worldwide who reach menopause each
year. In the United
States and Canada that averages out to about four thousand women per
day who experience some variation of the menopause-related changes.
As menopause approaches there are fluctuations in the levels of
hormones produced by the ovaries and these fluctuations lead to normal
short-term physical changes that may include irregular menstrual
patterns and sudden warm feelings with a sense of blushing that are
often referred to as “hot flashes”.
Others may experience night sweats, fatigue and irritability,
vaginal dryness, headaches, dizziness and a racing heart rate.
It is also not unusual for some women to experience nausea,
constipation, increased gas, musculoskeletal aches and pains and
fluctuation in sexual desire or response.
These effects are a result of age-related changes in the ovaries that
result in lower levels of estrogens and progesterone.
It is certainly important to understand that during this
“menopause transition” with fluctuating hormones, a midlife woman
may still be able to get pregnant.
Generally after twelve consecutive months have passed without a
period, the possibility of pregnancy is exceedingly unlikely.
The average age when women naturally begin menopause is about 50,
although some women naturally begin the process as early as in their
late thirties, and rarely as late as in the sixties. There are many factors that determine when this
change will begin and, in part, this is related to your genetics. There does not seem to be a correlation between the time of a
woman’s first period and her age at menopause.
Menopause does not seem to be influenced by race, height,
number of children or whether or not one has used oral contraceptives.
Cigarette smoking may speed up the process by as much as two
years and certainly the surgical removal of the ovaries will bring on
artificial menopause. Women
who have had a hysterectomy, or uterus removed but not the ovaries,
prior to experiencing natural menopause should continue to produce
hormones and consequently will not experience artificial (surgical)
menopause.
The post-menopausal phase of a woman’s life may
be as much as one-third or more of her adult life, since women have
the potential to live to 80 or more years.
Therefore, a solidly good understanding of menopause and its
effects is critical to optimize one’s health and lifestyle so that a
woman’s senior years can be as rich and rewarding as they ought to
be. |
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