Are you in your 40s or 50s? Are you seeing increased hair loss or emotional disturbance more often? Then you may be going through menopause!
Menopause is an unavoidable biological process that happens naturally to a female body at a certain age. Your body goes through a transition at this stage. Menopause is the time that signifies the end of your menstrual cycle. This usually happens due to hormonal changes during your 40s to 50s when it is identified that you did not have a menstrual period in the last 12 months.
Stages of Menopause
Three stages of Menopause include: perimenopause, menopause and postmenopause.
Perimenopause: It is the duration preceding menopause. It denotes a period in which hormone levels begin to fall and menstrual periods become unpredictable and irregular. You may begin to experience menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes or vaginal dryness. For some individuals, perimenopause can continue for a long time, like for 10 to 12 years. Pregnancy is still plausible at this stage.
Menopause: This occurs when you have stopped making the hormones that regulate your period every month and have gone 12 months without a period. When this happens, you enter postmenopause.
Postmenopause: This is the period following menopause. You will be in postmenopause for the rest of your life if this occurs. At this stage, you will no longer be ovulating and thus can not get pregnant anymore. Postmenopausal women are more likely to develop health problems such as osteoporosis and heart disease.
What happens during Menopause?
Being born with ovaries marks the inevitable occurrence of menopause in a women’s body. Menopause occurs when your ovaries stop producing estrogen and slow the production of other reproductive hormones such as progesterone. If you don’t have these hormones, you won’t get your period and won’t be able to get pregnant.
Not all female bodies go through menopause at the same particular age. It generally depends on the health, past surgeries or health issues, nutrition intake, among many other reasons. Some may face this natural process at an early stage, in the early 40s, while some may go through after 55.
Can I experience my Menopause early?
Early or premature menopause occurs when the ovaries stop producing hormones and menstruation ceases at a fairly young age than usual. This can occur naturally or as a result of a medical condition.
Typically, early and premature menopause are used interchangeably, mainly because the causes of these two are almost identical. These two terms can be differentiated depending on the age at which menopause is hitting the body. Early menopause happens before the age of 45. On the other hand, menopause that happens before the age of 40 is specified as a Premature one.
Causes of early or premature menopause:
Women who have a family history of early or premature menopause are more prone to undergo it themselves. Heavy smokers may experience menopause up to two years earlier than nonsmokers. Chemotherapy and some types of radiation treatments for cancer can affect your ovaries, causing your periods to stop permanently or temporarily. Some women who undergo a hysterectomy, which takes away the uterus, may experience menopause sooner than expected. Numerous other medical conditions can result in early menopause.
Symptoms of early or premature menopause:
Early menopause can occur as soon as you notice irregular periods. Other early menopausal symptoms include heavy bleeding, spotting, periods that last more than a week and happen at a longer period interval, mood swings, alterations in sexual feelings or desire, dryness of the cervix, sleeping problems, hot flashes, sweating at night, bladder control problems.
Effects of early or premature menopause:
Early menopause experiencing females can have normal menopausal effects. However, some women who experience early or premature menopause may also experience a higher risk of serious health problems such as heart disease and osteoporosis, menopause symptoms that are harsher, depression as a result of their early loss of fertility, or the changes in their bodies.
Early menopause does not need any treatment but it depends on your doctor’s suggestion.
Why does menopause happen?
Several reasons cause menopause. Due to a natural decrease in the hormones- estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), the body goes through many changes.
Other causes can be:
What are the symptoms of menopause?
Getting irregular and unprecedented periods is not the only sign of menopause. There are various other symptoms that give a sign of the transition in your body. Some may feel these symptoms intensively, whereas others may have very mild signs.
Typical symptoms can be:
- Irregular periods
- Hot flashes
- Night sweats
- Sleeping issues
- Changes in sex drive
- Vaginal dryness
- Mood changes
- Weaker bones
- Uterus infection
Other signals of menopause:
- Thin hair and extreme hair loss
- Weight gain
- Dry skin
- Loss of breast fullness
Symptoms can sometimes put you in a very awkward situation or you may be going through severe symptoms in which case you should consult your healthcare provider. Out of many treatments for symptoms, hormonal treatment is the most effective and known one. Apart from this, there are many other alternative treatments.
What Life changes can affect Menopause?
Apart from the aforementioned symptoms, there are many other changes in life that a woman may go through in this age bracket, which can also impact menopause.
Some life changes can be:
- Anxiety: Anxiety about everything related to your future, age, illness, death, getting dependable, disabled, make you more disturbed at this age.
- Changes: Changes in your financial situation, corporate position, identity, looks, relationships with others can greatly affect your mind.
- Partners, family, and relatives: At this age, you may see many of your elders leaving you for good which makes you more conscious about death. Your children may leave you due to their higher studies or office work. Your relationship status with your partner can change – you may get divorced or a widow or have an ailing spouse at home to look after.
All these highly predictable life situations can change your outlook towards life and make you feel more burdened or anxious, which ultimately can make your menopausal symptoms more painful to tolerate.
How menopause can Affect your health and overall life?
Menopausal effects are experienced not only physically, but also mentally and in our overall life. It can affect our career, our relationships with others, sexual relationships with our beloved partner, and everything on earth surrounding us including the economic outcomes.
Physical effect:
After menopause, you become more prone to certain medical conditions. Because cardiovascular disease after menopause is the major cause of death, it is critical to exercise regularly and maintain a balanced diet. Postmenopausal women with osteoporosis are extremely vulnerable to spine, hip, and wrist fractures. You may have frequent, strong urges to urinate, which are accompanied by an uncontrollable loss of urine (urge incontinence) or loss of urine with coughing, laughing, or lifting. Because metabolism slows during perimenopause and menopause and after menopause, many women gain weight.
Emotional effect:
It is very natural to see emotional changes during and after menopause. At this time, it gets quite difficult to even understand what emotion you are actually feeling. Some of the emotional effects that can become part of your daily routine can be sadness, anxiety, aggressiveness, tension, lack of motivation and difficulty focusing. Here are some ways to tackle your emotional turbulence: https://www.webmd.com/menopause/guide/emotional-roller-coaster
Sexual life:
Dealing with the emotional and physical symptoms of menopause can lead to a decrease in sexual desire. Vaginal dryness, which can make sex uncomfortable or painful, is a fairly common symptom that can affect your sexual desire. If you lose libido during this time, it will most likely return once your symptoms have declined. Some people may find that they like to have sex more since they don’t have to think about getting pregnant.
Relationship with people:
As at this stage of life, you are going through lots of emotions, knowingly or unknowingly, you can have a rough time with your partner, children, friends, relatives, colleagues. You may feel that you are falling out of love, or not interested in the matters of your partner or children.
Career:
Women can see changes in their workplace because of their attitude and behavior with colleagues and others during menopause. Due to menopausal symptoms, women get conscious and sometimes feel embarrassed during work. Many face problems while giving presentations or meetings and do not feel like giving their optimum input in their daily operations at the workplace due to forgetfulness, lack of focus and confidence. This gets intense when they are dealing with younger or male employees.
What changes should you bring to cope up with Menopause?
It is neither possible to avoid menopause nor the symptoms of it. As menopause is inevitable in a woman’s life, there are some healthy habits that you can take up to be at ease with your body and mind before, during and after menopause.
- Eat healthy food, high in nutrition, to control cholesterol and prevent diabetics and heart diseases. Reduce drinking alcohol, smoking and eating spicy food to avoid vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes).
- Maintain a healthy weight or lose weight to reduce the intensity of menopausal symptoms.
- Control blood pressure
- Yoga can help to reduce sleep disturbance and vasomotor symptoms.
- Drinking cool liquids, using a hand fan and adjusting clothes help to improve cooling and lower core body temperature.
Conclusion
Menopause is unavoidable and the effects of this natural transition of your body are also predictable. You may face menopause earlier than usual or face the symptoms more severely than others, in which case you can always take advice from your doctor. The most important thing in this stage is that you try to understand your own emotions and make your partner and others understand what you are going through. It is always better to communicate your greatest life change with your loved ones.
