Menopause: A Normal Aging Process in Women

With advancing age, there is a physiological cessation of menstrual cycles, and this condition is known as menopause, which may also be thought of as being a change of life or climacteric. When ovaries begin to stop producing estrogen and this results in the reproductive system slowly but surely shutting down, one may be reasonably sure that it is menopause.

Due to the body adapting to changing levels of natural hormones, the person will be affected by vasomotor symptoms like hot flashes and palpitations, and also psychological symptoms like increase in depression moods, anxiety, as well as irritableness, and lack of concentration. In addition, there may also be atrophic symptoms like vaginal dryness as well as having an urgency to urinate.

Fewer and Erratic Menstrual Periods

All of these symptoms will show up in the form of the woman having increasingly fewer as well as erratic menstrual periods. In fact the word menopause emanates from the Greek root “meno” which means month and the word “pausis” or, a pause or cessation. In a technical sense, the word menopause refers to the ceasing of menses. Otherwise, the slow and steady process through which it takes place will typically take a year though, it may last only six months and is known as climacteric.

The onset of menopause may normally occur at the age of fifty years or thereabouts, though some women may experience it at an earlier age, especially if they have had cancer or another serious illness and also undergone chemotherapy. The menopause experience is like a transition in the life of a woman which means no more periods and no more child bearing. It also means that the woman will no longer be able to produce milk, and this transition in the woman can be a traumatic as well as a psychologically depressing period in her life.

However, women may feel depressed but may also feel elated by feeling liberated from the monthly routine and may lead to her becoming wiser as well as more mature. There are often many misconceptions as well as myths surrounding menopause, even though it is a natural process of aging. The old fashioned view was that life begins to go downhill after menopause. Today, many women take the help of medicines and thus are able to face life as a new challenge.

This transition is a vital part of the aging process as the ovaries no longer produce eggs and the menstrual activity lessens, and finally comes to an end. A woman that smokes may experience menopause a couple of years before non-smokers, and it may not result in depression in each and every case. There is also no lessening in sexual satisfaction and may in fact lead to a healthy life practice.