An Insight to Menopause
by Dr. Don Colbert An Insight to Menopause
http://www.drcolbert.com/cont_articles.php?view=full&artcat=2&aid=140
If you are a woman in your late 40’s or early 50’s you may already be familiar with the term menopause. Sometimes labeled by women who have gone through this as “The Change” or “Change in Life”. Of course this is a normal part of a woman’s life and should not be cause for alarm. The changes in years leading up to the last few periods for a woman can bring on the onset of hot flashes. This is called the menopausal transition which is not menopause itself. This transition occurs when the hormones produced by the ovaries, progesterone and estrogen begin to fluctuate. Most of the time these changes start to occur in her forties without any symptoms. Some notable changes are thickening waist and vaginal dryness. The mechanics behind this is mainly due to the atrophy of the ovaries. The changes that most women see can last several years and 12 months until the last period. Usually once 12 months has passed without a cycle, a woman is considered to have gone through menopause and is now post-menopausal.
For women going through this change it can be like roller skating while juggling bowling pins. Not easy. The average age of menopause is 51. But of course there are highs and lows on either side of the curve. In order to fully understand if you may be going through menopause it would be a good idea to visit your gynecologist to get a physical exam and have lab work completed to test levels of hormones. Women who have gone through certain procedures like a hysterectomy may have stopped production of the hormones already. This has been noted after procedures and tests for the hormones estrogen and progesterone. In other procedures like a bilateral oophorectomy (removal of both ovaries), stops periods usually right away. But if the uterus is still present and one ovary remains, menstrual cycles usually continue. These procedures have been labeled before as “surgical menopause”. At times before the age of 40, a woman may experience symptoms like menopause and stop having cycles. This may be due to some forms of radiation treatment, certain medications or what is classified as “autoimmune” functions. Some reports have shown that women around the age of 40 reported what is named pre-mature menopause. But they also reported returning normal cycles thereafter. This is mainly due to women ovaries not producing hormones regularly. There have even been pregnancies reported after such an event. This may be known to some as primary ovarian insufficiency. In essence this would not be the same as menopause and should be discussed with a physician to determine the extent of what differences in hormones are occurring.