What is Menopause?
With menopause comes changes in estrogen and progesterone levels which may lead to a whole host of symptoms. Some women have many problems, while some others go through this transitional time easily, experiencing very mild symptoms.
Common signs of menopause include:
A change in the period and bleeding cycle is very common. The normal period cycle may become erratic with more or less bleeding. It is not unusual to have spotting in between regular periods during menopause. In addition, blood flow during menstruation starts to change, some women have an increase in flow while others have a decline in blood flow, every woman is different.
Many women going through menopause get hot flashes. Hot flashes are a sudden heat sweeping over the upper part of the body and redness in the face and neck. You can also get hot flashes while sleeping and these are called night sweats. Both hot flashes and night sweats may vary in intensity from woman to woman, typically, they go away after a few years.
Some women begin to have more problems controlling their bladder, it may result in more trips to the bathroom to empty the bladder and occasional urine leakage during a hard laugh.
Vaginal dryness is a common symptom, and sex can feel uncomfortable. Signs of menopause include changes in sex drive and desire; many women have a sudden loss of libido. To a lot of women, not having the worry about pregnancy allows them to feel more free about sex and they report an increase in sexual activity. However, women are advised to use condoms because menopause doesn’t offer them immunity to sexually transmitted diseases.
Many women report becoming more moody and tired. You may also experience more stress and anxiety. Women in menopause also tend to get easily tired, sometimes having fatigue strokes. Although some women may try to get the recommended eight hours of sleep, they report not feeling fully rested because they get woken up by night sweats.
Another symptom of menopause is changes in weight; in some instances the waist may become thicker, while fat levels tend to increase. Skin begins to lose some of its elasticity. Muscle mass decreases and, unfortunately, a lot of women put on a little more fat, especially around the midsection.
It is not unusual to have minor heart palpitations or an irregular heart beat. This usually only lasts for a short time period and isn’t usually dangerous or life threatening. In some cases though these symptoms might mimic symptoms of other more serious medical problems, therefore you should confer with an expert to avoid complications and additional problems.
Because everyone’s body is different, no two women will experience menopause exactly the same. The most important thing is to manage the symptoms as well as possible and try to keep in mind that this a natural phase of life that women have been enduring since the dawn of time. Without a doubt, women going through menopause need to take more time out for themselves. It’s important to make sure your body is getting the sleep it needs, plus your body is already under a lot of hormonal stress, so you need to reduce your daily stress to make your mood swings more tolerable. And, as always, exercise is important in menopausal women, weight bearing exercises help promote better bone density and works to reduce stress and increase better overall health.
Tags: Menopause, perimenopause, perimenopause symptoms, signs of menopause, symptoms of menopause