When it comes to women’s health, menopause is not a disease. This is a natural process which occurs in the lives of women. Severity of a woman’s symptoms during this time can have much to do with how she views this time in her life. If her view of menopause is the end of youth and sexuality it will be a much more challenging time for her than if it is viewed as the next natural step of life. Most of the disagreeable side effects of menopause can be reduced, if not eliminated with exercise, proper diet, and nutritional supplements.
Menopause is sometime referred to as the “change of life”. At this time a woman stops menstruation and ovulating. When it comes to women’s health, menopause is the end of fertility for the woman. Her ovaries mainly stop making hormones, progesterone and estrogen when her body stops ovulating. Estrogen is thought of as a sex hormone strictly tied to reproduction but it also acts on many different organs in the woman’s body. Estrogen receptor cells are in the bladder, breasts, vagina, skin, bones, arteries, liver, heart, and brain. They all require estrogen to fuel these receptors for normal cell function. The woman’s body uses estrogen to keep the skin smooth and moist, the arteries unclogged, and the body’s internal thermostat operating properly. Estrogen is essential for proper bone formation, thus creating problems for women’s health after the change of life.
Other organs take over the job of producing estrogen from the ovaries and continue to produce some estrogen and other hormones. Endocrine glands as these organs are known secrete hormones to keep up proper bodily functions. For women’s health after menopause estrogen levels drop sharply but the hormone does not vanish completely.
Osteoporosis in particular is a major problem for women’s health after menopause. Over time the diminished supply of estrogen and progesterone increase the likelihood of cardiovascular disease, vaginal atrophy as well as osteoporosis.
Other symptoms that may affect women’s health can be mood swings, hot flashes, night sweats, fatigue, headaches, anxiety, dizziness, depression, bladder problems, vaginal dryness and itching, burning and discomfort during sexual intercourse, poor libido, dryness and aging of the skin, heart palpitations, shortness of breath and insomnia. These symptoms are due to progesterone and estrogen deficiency. Some women however can go through menopause with no or few symptoms.
Symptoms can be more severe for women who have their ovaries removed during hysterectomy and causing menopause to occur suddenly. Keeping at least one ovary when undergoing a hysterectomy will stop menstruating after surgery but these women will still go through menopause.
Some women will start this change early and some will start later. The average age at menopause is around fifty. Not only is the menopausal period different for each individual woman the effects for women’s health can also be different for each woman.
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Estrogen Levels
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