Menopause Health Article

Menopause

Young girls start menstruating between the ages of eleven and thirteen, when their reproductive systems reach maturity. Women have regular menstrual cycles every twenty-eight days until about the age of fifty, at which time menstruation becomes irregular. This irregularity signals the start of menopause. The natural cessation of menstruation occurs due to reduced production of the female hormones estrogen and progesterone, which generally occurs between the ages of forty and fifty-five. The age at which a woman enters menopause is affected by genetics, race, and environmental factors. Women can also go into premature menopause, either naturally or due to oophorectomy (the surgical removal of the ovaries).

Stages of Menopause

Women go through different phases of menopause, including perimenopausal, menopausal, and postmenopausal periods. During the perimenopausal period, the regular cyclical occurrence of menstruation is disrupted and menstruation becomes irregular. This phase may last anywhere from six months to a year. During the perimenopausal period, production of estrogen is reduced, and eventually stops. Menopause is defined as the cessation of the menstrual period. Women are described as postmenopausal when they have gone one year without a menstrual period.

Physiological Changes

The lack of estrogen and progesterone causes many changes in women's physiology that affect their health and well-being. These changes include:

• Elevated levels of total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol, which increases the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) in women. During the reproductive years, estrogen prevents increased levels of blood cholesterol and maintains the activity of estrogen receptors in women, thus preventing the risk of CHD.
• Calcium loss from the bones is increased in the first five years after the onset of menopause, resulting in a loss of bone density. This bone loss then tapers off until about the age of seventy-five, when calcium loss accelerates again. This predisposes women to the risk of osteoporosis and bone fractures.
• The body composition of menopausal women also changes, with the percentage of body fat increasing and muscle mass decreasing. The increase in body-fat percentage is believed to be partly due to decreased physical activity.
• Decreased muscle mass reduces the rate of basal metabolism, which may be responsible for weight gain at this period of a woman's life.
• The abdominal-fat storage that occurs in women at this stage increases the risk for cardiovascular disease.
• The tissues in the urinary tract and reproductive organs atrophy.

Some other transient but unpleasant symptoms of menopause include hot flashes, fatigue, anxiety, sleep disturbance, and memory loss.