Menopause: Causes & Symptoms

What is menopause?

Most women start menopause between the ages of 45 and 55. The on average age for menopause onset in the United States is 51 years old, according to the National Institute on Aging. Readily menopause daily use to onset before age 40.

Menopause occurs when your ovaries stop yield estrogen, the hormone that controls the reproducible cycle. A woman is in menopause when she hasn’t had a time limit for more than 12 months. But class mate symptoms, such as hot flashes, begin long before menopause during a time gap called perimenopause.

Anything that damages your ovaries or brake estrogen solemnization can cause early menopause. This includes chemotherapy for cancer or an oophorectomy (removal of the ovaries). In these cases, your doctor will help prepare you for early menopause.

Causes

Menopause can result from:

Natural decline of reproducible hormones - As you approach your late 30s, your ovaries start making less estrogen and progesterone — the hormones that restrict menstruation — and your potency declines. In your 40s, your catamenia periods may become longer or short, heavy or lighter, and more or less frequent, until ultimately — on average, by age 51 — your ovaries stop producing eggs, and you have no more periods.

Hysterectomy - A hysterectomy that displaces your womb but not your ovaries usually doesn't cause immediate menopause. Although you no long have periods, your ovaries still release eggs and Generate estrogen and progesterone. But operation that displaces both your uterus and your ovaries (total hysterectomy and bilateral oophorectomy) does cause immediate menopause. Periods stop directly, and you're likely to have hot flashes and other menopausal signs and symptoms, which can be uncompromising, as these hormonal changes occur abruptly rather than over numerous years.

Chemotherapy and radiation therapy - These cancer therapies can actuate menopause, causing symptoms such as hot flashes pending or shortly after the course of treatment. The halt to menstruation (and fertility) is not every time perdurable following chemotherapy, so birth Direction measures may still be desired.

About 1 percent of women experience menopause already age 40 (premature menopause). Menopause may result from staple ovarian defect — when your ovaries fail to produce routine levels of reproducible hormones — stemming from genetic factors or autoimmune Indisposition. But often no cause can be found. For these women, hormone therapy is typically recommended at least until the unstudied age of menopause in order to save the brain, heart and bones.

Symptoms

In the months or years primary up to menopause (perimenopause), you might experience these signs and symptoms:

• Irregular periods
• Vaginal dryness
• Hot flashes
• Chills
• Night sweats
• Sleep problems
• Mood changes
• Weight gain and slowed metabolism
• Thinning hair and dry skin
• Loss of breast fullness

Symptoms, including changes in menstruation, are varied for every woman. Most probable, you'll experience some anomaly in your periods before they end.

Leap periods during perimenopause is common and requisite. Often, menstrual periods will Leap a month and return, or skip several months and then start monthly cycles anew for a few months. Periods also tend to happen on shorter cycles, so they are closer together. Abhorrence irregular periods, pregnancy is eventual. If you have skipped a period but aren't sure you've started the menopausal transition, meditate a pregnancy test.