What is Menopause?

Menopause is officially defined as beginning twelve months after a woman’s last period. At this point a woman is no longer fertile, and she is at once considered post-menopausal. Therefore menopause is more accurately understood as the transition from fertility to infertility, what many women call ‘going through menopause.’ This transitional period is actually termed ‘perimenopause’ or pre-menopause.

Perimenopause begins when a woman's ovaries begin to produce less estrogen progesterone, and testosterone. This change in hormone levels that your body is producing happens gradually, sometimes taking over ten years.

The process of perimenopause begins as fertility starts to decline, for most women this happens in your late thirties. This decline in fertility happens because of a lesser amount of progesterone, which makes the ovaries less likely to be fertilized. This decline can be considered the beginning of perimenopause, but most women do not consider menopause until they start experiencing the physical symptoms of decreased hormone production.

The most infamous symptom of perimenopause is the hot flash. Now that most women live long enough to go through menopause, hot flashes are an experience that most people today are familiar with and understanding of.

How and when they affect women varies; for some hot flashes feel like a warm blush, and for others hot flashes can be so strong that you have

to pull off of the road, or wake up out of a dead sleep (these, incidentally, are called night sweats). Hot flashes can last anywhere from thirty seconds to five minutes. Frequency also varies among women, but one thing is for certain: hot flashes are not a post-menopausal reality; this is only a symptom of the transitional period out of fertility.

The bad news is, this transitional, or pre-menopausal stage, can last over ten years. These ten years in themselves will be filled with stages and cycles as you go from full to no fertility. It is usually later in perimenopause that a woman begins to experience hot flashes.

One of the first signs of decreased hormone production is changes in the menstrual cycle. These changes vary greatly from person to person, and so it can be hard to attribute the change to perimenopause except in conjunction with other symptoms. Some women experience a heavier period during this time and others a lighter. Some women experience their periods more frequent, and others with less frequent. Some women begin to spot in between periods, and other women begin missing periods.

Women who have heavier or longer periods during perimenopause usually find that they do not experience any of the usual bloating orcramping associated with their period. During this time, even as periods may become fewer and farther between, there is still a potential to become pregnant. While this potential is gradually diminishes, it is generally considered a possibility until a year has passed since a woman’s last period, a grace period which

insures that another period is not on its way. Once twelve months have passed since your last period, your ovaries no longer produce estrogen or progesterone, and they do not release eggs. Fertility at this point no longer exists.

As menopause approaches and hormone production begins to diminish, there are certain symptoms that build through perimenopause and persist through post-menopause. The most important of these has to do with a womanís health. With lessening amounts of estrogen a woman looses bone density. Calcium and exercise are important antidotes to this potentially crippling problem. Another tendency is for cholesterol to rise, and this too can be countered with exercise, cognizance and diet.

Diminishing estrogen leads to a drier and less elastic vagina, which can make women more susceptible to urinary tract infections, and can also make sexual intercourse uncomfortable. Another symptom can be incontinence, for which Kegel exercises can help. A lubricant, household or discreet mail-order, can help make sex more enjoyable.

Another change characteristic of perimenopause, and not of post-menopausal women, are mood changes. Similar to the symptoms of PMS, these mood changes are also caused by changing hormone levels. However, during perimenopause hormone levels rise and fall unpredictable at times, and can make dealing with the changes more difficult for the unpredictability of these swings. Luckily this is a temporary attribute of this transitional phase.

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