Who Gets Menopause?

The simple answer to the question of who gets menopause is: every woman. There are a few different ways, however, that women go through, or "get" menopause.

The most common age for women to become post-menopausal is fifty-three. This age, of course, is merely an average. The break-off point at which women are considered to be going through menopause prematurely is at age forty. The variance in the onset of menopause is huge.

Menopause is a broad and multi-faceted phase in the cycle that women travel beginning in puberty. Menopause is the loss of fertility which is caused by a diminishing production of hormones; progesterone, estrogen, and testosterone. Since fertility usually peaks in a woman’s mid-twenties, progesterone usually begins to diminish after this time. While this could be marked as the beginning of menopause, it merely goes to show how fluid the transition into menopause truly is.

What most women refer to as 'going through menopause' is actually, in technical terms, going through "perimenopause" or pre-menopause. This is the period, which can last over five years, in which the woman's gradually declining fertility causes various uncomfortable and unpredictable symptoms. Menopause, technically speaking, occurs twelve months after a woman’s last period.

Before having that last period, a woman's body gradually loses its fertility. The diminishing production of hormones leads to a period of

adjustment which includes, the infamous hot-flashes, irregular periods, periods of either greater of lesser intensity, periods without the usual cramping, and unpredictable "PMS" symptoms caused by fluctuating levels of hormones.

Included within these symptoms which are characteristic only of perimenopause, women going through menopause also experience things which are characteristic of post-menopausal years as well. These symptoms include loss of libido (sex drive), and a loss of muscle mass. Post-menopause also brings with it a thickening waist, a loss of bone density, and a thinner skin. Every woman who lives to a certain age goes through these changes in her body. Menopause is a natural way of gradually relieving your body from the pressures of child-bearing (whether those actual pressures were ever taken up by the woman or not, it may mark a gradual transition into a new phase of life.) Think of it as retirement.

Menopause can be a gradual process lasting for half of a decade, or it can be experienced by a woman because it was induced. Menopause can be surgically induced. This is when menopause is caused by the surgical removal of both ovaries, a procedure called oophorectomy. Oophorectomy often causes menopausal symptoms to start almost immediately. A hysterectomy is another form of surgical induction of menopause, in which the uterus is removed from the woman’s body. This will also stop the body from having periods, and will cause the immediate onset of menopause. Induced menopause can also be

caused by ovarian damage. Ovarian damage can happen from radiation or drug therapies. Induced menopause of this sort may not be immediate, but rather may take many years.

Menopause is sometimes caused not by a decreased production of hormones-leading to a decrease in fertility, but rather because of an ovarian failure. This is when the ovaries do not produce eggs, and the hormone levels of the body subsequently drop to menopausal levels. While the onset of menopause in the case of ovarian failure is not as immediate as in the case of surgically induced menopause, the symptoms or perimenopause are substantially abbreviated.

The popular experience of menopause is relatively recent if only because the life expectancy of women has so increased. These days, people understand what a hot-flash is. Because life-expectancy has so increased, most women can expect to go through menopause.

Menopause can be an emotionally tumultuous time, with a loss of libido, a body that is transitioning out of its fertile physique of child-bearing hips, and varying levels of hormones. However, since most women now go through menopause, the public has an understanding of perimenopausal symptoms. There are also many support groups and books written about the physical and emotional experience of menopause.

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