Symptoms of menopause
The most well-known symptom of the menopause is hot flushes, but only around 30% of women experience them to a significant degree.
Despite being the most talked about symptom, there are many others that women experience during menopause that are less well known, such as:
Irritability
Mood swings
Insomnia
Change in body fat distribution
Vaginal dryness
Decreased libido
Although it is often overlooked, insomnia causes women to sleep poorly during the early years of menopause. Poor sleep in turn causes a feeling a tiredness, which alters their mood and complicates issues even more.
The change in body fat distribution is also a symptom of menopause. Most women gain weight when they reach this age, not because they have a greater appetite or eat more, but because their basal metabolic rate and body fat distribution change. As they lose oestrogen, fat begins to accumulate around the waist, causing them to lose their shape.
Another of the most common and significant symptoms, which is also chronic and progressive, is vaginal dryness. This occurs because when oestrogen levels drop, the vagina loses elasticity, leading to dryness.
Menopause also comes with a decrease in libido, normally associated with long-term relationships in which sexual desire is no longer the same, combined with hormonal depression in women.
Of all the symptoms mentioned above, hot flushes are the ones that improve after two or three years and lose intensity, but all the others remain over time.
Mood swings are usually associated with the early stages and tend to improve, but they are closely related to hormonal changes in the later years of menopause because hormones fluctuate greatly.
It is very important to emphasise that body fat distribution, muscle loss associated with testosterone deficiency, feelings of tiredness and, above all, vaginal dryness will accompany women for the rest of their lives unless proactive measures are taken.
Life expectancy has increased dramatically, and because hormone levels decline relatively early, many women now live close to half their lives without these beneficial hormones. Assessing the need for appropriate hormone supplementation can be an important step to ensure long-term well-being.
What all these symptoms associated with menopause have in common is that they are all caused by the almost sudden loss of all the hormones that women produce.
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Diagnostics
A woman is considered to have reached menopause when she has not had a period for a full year.
We can perform tests to check the hormones that stimulate the ovaries and oestrogen levels, but the results are not usually very helpful because these hormones can fluctuate greatly during the period when we begin to have irregular periods.
The reason? Sometimes the ovaries cease to function, leading to menopausal symptoms in certain months, but at other times, they operate normally.
Stages of menopause
There are different stages of menopause, and they all depend on the activity of the ovaries. From the age of 40 onwards, these begin to function less effectively and, above all, from the age of 45 onwards, women begin to experience irregular periods, mood swings and the symptoms of menopause.
Premature menopause
The average age at which women experience menopause is between 48 and 52, but some women experience it before the age of 48 and, above all, before the age of 45, which is why it is referred to as premature menopause. Furthermore, there is a family connection, so if your mother went through the menopause at an early age, you are also likely to do so.
When suffering from this type of menopause, hormone therapy is widely accepted socially because women would spend a long time without hormones, which is harmful to their health.
Premenopause
Premenopause is the stage prior to menopause, as its name suggests. It lasts from birth until menopause.
Perimenopause
This is the stage when a woman's body is preparing for the menopause. It spans approximately from the age of 45 until menstruation ceases at the age of 50 or 52.
F.A.Q.
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What is menopause?
We can define menopause as the permanent cessation of menstruation. A woman is considered to have reached menopause when she has gone a full year without having a period.
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How long does it last?
Menopause lasts forever. Once menstruation ceases, menopause will continue for the rest of your life.
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Is menopause permanent?
Yes, menopause is permanent. When you miss your period, if you do not take action, your body stops producing hormones. One solution is hormone replacement therapy to prevent the symptoms associated with menopause and also to obtain the necessary hormones externally.
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What is the best hormone treatment?
As we mentioned earlier, a woman's hormones will essentially disappear during menopause, so the best hormone treatment is bioidentical hormones. They are literally identical to the hormones produced by our bodies, despite being produced in a laboratory. Until now, hormone replacement therapy for menopause used oestrogens obtained from pregnant mares, which are not exactly the same as those found in women, and progesterone was replaced by a ‘cousin’ of our own: progestins. There are two problems with this therapy. The first is an increased cardiovascular risk, which is caused by taking the tablets orally; when taken this way, the hormones pass through the liver and increase coagulation factors, thereby increasing this risk. And the second is the risk of breast cancer with supplementation, which appears to be associated with the use of progestins—the “cousin” of progesterone—rather than progesterone itself.
All these risks are eliminated with bioidentical hormones because they are administered transdermally or subcutaneously, avoiding the cardiovascular risk we had when taking them orally. Furthermore, if the oestrogen is identical to our own, there is even less risk. And the risk of breast cancer is eliminated because there are studies that link this type of cancer to progestin. Therefore, by taking natural progesterone hormone supplements, this danger is also eliminated. -
What are the most common physical symptoms?
The most well-known physical symptom of the menopause is hot flushes, an unbearable feeling of heat coming from within that causes women who suffer from it to wake up even at night and affects their lives. The change in body shape is also visible because the distribution of body fat and the dryness of the vagina and mucous membranes change. Although this dryness is generalised throughout the body, it is more focused on the vagina due to the lack of hormones.
In addition, the insomnia suffered by women going through the menopause takes its toll on their daily lives because it causes physical fatigue.
Expert opinion
Women currently spend almost half their lives in menopause. This means that she lives without her ovaries producing sex hormones: oestrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. This brings with it a series of changes and symptoms that are not always well tolerated: hot flushes, irritability, tiredness, insomnia, increased abdominal fat, vaginal dryness. There are currently many hormonal and non-hormonal treatments available to alleviate the symptoms associated with this long stage of life. We need not settle for and accept all these changes as normal.
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