Signs, Symptoms And Menopause: What Your Body Says
The Symptoms of menopause. Or perimenopause for some women. Just that one word alone can strike trepidation into the hearts of the most stalwart women. Menopause is that fork in the road of life of every woman that, when it occurs, changes her life she has known since puberty. What are the signs and symptoms of menopause? Let’s explore.
Menopause can strike a woman at almost anytime beyond the age of 30 but on average occurs any time from about 40 to 59. Often times many women find that they begin menopause at about the age their mothers did but this is not a hard and fast rule.
There are exceptions to this of course and one of those is if you have had both ovaries and uterus removed. In this case “surgical menopause” occurs as hormone production ceases. If only the ovaries remain after surgery then more often than not the gradual process of menopause takes place.
Perimenopause in many cases can precede actual menopause. The ovaries begin producing less of the hormones progesterone and estrogen. When this occurs gradually the change begins and signs and symptoms of menopause can be very slight.
When this occurs changes in the menstrual cycle begin quite often with skipped periods or they may even occur closer together. Your flow will become more noticeably lighter or heavier and most often are accompanied by hot flashes.
Hot flashes are one of the most prominent early symptoms as well as they begin in your chest area and quickly pulsate and radiate into your head. Your skin can turn red and sweating most often happens giving this symptom it infamous name.
Other symptoms which may occur with hot flashes may also include nausea and dizziness. Some woman experience headaches and rapid heartbeat.
If hot flashes occur at night, night sweats and trouble sleeping may produce tiredness the next day making the whole process even more miserable.
Emotional symptoms are also quite common. Some of these may include tiredness as mentioned before but also sadness, frustration and anxiety. Your best defense against these types of symptoms is to see your physician right away. There is medication which can lessen these symptoms.
The process of perimenopause and menopause, in general, is usually very gradual and can take several years to run its course. A blood test can be taken by your physician to determine what stage of menopause you are in but in most cases when no period has taken place for 12 months, menopause has ended.
Of course, all women experience menopause on different levels. For some, it can be a relatively quick and painless experience but for others, it can be painfully slow and very frustrating, to say the least.
The good news is that there are a ton of new and exciting product available today both natural and prescribed that can have a huge effect on how you get through menopause. Treatments also include hormone replacement therapy and these should be discussed with your doctor to experience the results you desire.
