| Menopause
Menopause may be described as
a stage in a women's life when she stops having her monthly periods
. Women generally observe Menopause during their late forties and
early fifties. It is a normal part of aging, marking the end of
a woman's reproductive years.
The ceasesor of the function of ovaries leads to
menopause; ovaries are located in the pelvis and produce eggs and
female hormones such as estrogen.
During each monthly menstrual cycle, an egg is
released from one ovary. The egg travels from the ovary through
a fallopian tube to the uterus.
Menopause is a gradual process, it does not occur
suddenly. The transition period differs from women to women. Scientists
are still trying to identify all the factors that initiate and influence
this transition. Women in perimenopause transition typically experience
abnormal vaginal bleeding such as erratic periods
or abnormal bleeding patterns. The end of a women's transitions
period marks the beginning of menopause.
In medical terminology the problem is explained
nonexistence of menstrual periods for 12 months. Perimenopause means
"around the time of menopause." It is not officially a medical term,
but is sometimes used to explain certain aspects of the menopause
transition in lay terms. Postmenopause encompasses the entire period
of time that comes after the last menstrual period.
The ovaries are the main source of female hormones, which control the development of female body characteristics such as the breasts, body shape, and body hair. The hormones also regulate the menstrual cycle and pregnancy . Estrogens also protect the bone. Therefore a woman can develop osteoporosis (thinning of bone) later in life when her ovaries do not produce adequate estrogen.
The symptoms of menopause can
be categorized according to its onset time as early and late menopause.
Irregular vaginal bleeding, hot flashes, and night
sweat come under the early symptoms whereas vaginal dryness and
irritation and osteoporosis come under the late onset of menopause.
The average age of onset of menopause process is 51 years old. But there is no single method to predict when a woman will enter menopause. The age at which a woman starts having menstrual periods is also not related to the age of menopause onset.
Since hormone levels may ebb and flow greatly in a woman, so hormone levels may not be a reliable factor to diagnose menopause. They (the levels) may be low one day, and high the other in the same woman. There hasn't been a single blood test that has been proved to reliably predict when a woman is going through menopause, or menopausal transition.
Therefore there is currently no proven blood testing
successful results about menopause except for tests that eliminates
medical causes of erratic menstrual periods other than menopause.
The only possible way to diagnose menopause is to observe lack of
menstrual periods for 12 months in a woman in the expected age range.
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