Menopause Symptoms And What They Mean To You

Most every adult woman has heard about menopause and will want to ask questions. Many want to know how long menopause lasts, in addition to being curious about the menopause symptoms. To be accurate, once menopause occurs, is lasts for the rest of your like because it occurs with the end of your menstruation, much the same as menarche occurs with the beginning.

In referring to menopause, most people are actually including the time before, and just after, the very last menstruation. This time before and just after is called perimenopause. Perimenopause commonly begins years prior to the actual cessation of menstruation. Symptoms often begin subtly, and increase over time, or begin strongly and are felt over a shorter time period. Blood tests are used to detect changes associated with perimenopause.

The most common menopause symptoms are irregular or abnormal periods and the vascular reactions commonly called "hot flashes". Lighthearted menopausal women may refer to "hot flashes" as "power surges" as a means of empowerment and providing a sense of humor during this life changing time. Before periods cease, they may become heavier, lighter, longer, shorter, or irregular in length or interval for several years. Anemia is fairly common and troubling for many women due to extremely heavy bleeding. Menopause can be caused both naturally and surgically. Menopause caused before the usual age range of the mid forties to fifties can occur from ovarian failure or surgical removal of both ovaries. The changes for younger women from surgical menopause could be more intense than natural menopause.

For many women, the most important features they look for when it comes to menopause relief are how to deal with mood swings and hot flashes. These symptoms can cause a great deal of discomfort and embarrassment. Research has found that many menopause symptoms are a result of a decrease in the amount of hormones your body produces. One treatment to consider then, is replacement of estrogen and progesterone.

With menopause comes an increased risk of cancers such as breast and other types of cancers. Natural remedies, or supplements like products made from soy, herbs such as black and blue cohosh, and others are preferred by many females to treat their symptoms. Soy products contain a substance that is a natural estrogen. Others may choose to use hormone replacement therapy for a short term, a few months only, to alleviate the worst menopause symptoms.

Menopause also carries an increased risk for heart disease and osteoporosis, due to lower levels of protective estrogen. Many women will benefit from taking hormone supplements, despite their known risks, if they have family histories or previous occurrences of these problems. Generally, such women should take the lowest effective dose of such hormones, and should look for other ways to reduce the effects of heart disease and osteoporosis.

Menopause can be abrupt when a woman has surgical loss of her ovaries, or a slow process over as much as a decade. What matters is that her symptoms are managed as completely as possible with as little risk from the therapy as possible.

Every woman knows about menopause, but they all have some questions. Some things that they may be wanting to know are how long does menopause last, or what are some of the menopause symptoms to be prepared for. In truth menopause, once begun, never ends for the remainder of your life as it is marking the end of your menstrual cycle, much the way menarche is marking the start.

Francine Cook is an ex-nurse (retired) who now writes articles on women’s issues. Francine is the chief editor of Menopause-Answers.info, a site where you can get more details on menopause symptoms such as menopause and weight gain and menopause hot flashes

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