What is menopause?
Menopause is a time in a woman’s life when hermenstural periods stop. It is a natural change that occurs in every woman. It may occur between the age of 45-55 years. When a woman attains this stage, she can no longer become pregnant. When a woman reaches this stage, her ovaries stop producing eggs. There is less production of the hormones estrogen and progesterone. Menopause symptoms appear due to decreased levels of these two hormones. Menopause may occur suddently but most of the time, menstural periods may stop over time. When a woman does not get periods for over a period of one year, it means she has achieved menopausal stage. It is a normal process but sometimes, it happens early when ovaries are removed due to some disease. Women who take chemotherapy or hormone therapy can also suffer from early menopause symptoms.
Signs and symptoms of menopause
There are clear signs and symptoms of menopause that help to determine that a woman has achieved the stage of menopause. Symptoms may vary from woman to woman. Many women suffer from worse symptoms of menopause.
The first and the most important symptom is that periods start to change. Periods may occur less often or too frequently. Many women start getting periods after every three weeks before peeiods stop. Women may have irregular periods for one to three years or more. Other signs and symptoms of menopause are:
- There is increased heart rate and heart beat
- Hot flushes occur for one or two years
- Night sweats may occur
- There is flushing of the skin due to change of hormones
- Many women also suffer from loss of sleep due to hot flushes and night sweats
- There is redcued interest in sex
- Memory may also get affected, women may start forgetting the things easily
- Headache and mood swings are common, irritability, depression and anxiety are common symptoms
- There is dryness of vagina and women may have pain during sexual intercourse
- Vagina infections are common
- Pain in joints may occur and there is irregular heart beat or palpitations of the heart
How to cure menopause?
Women can make changes in diet and lifestyle to avoid the signs and symptoms of menopause. Some important tips are given here that may help women to avoid the symptoms of menopause:
- Women at the age of menopause should avoid too much caffiene and alcohol. This can further add to the sufferings of women.
- Women should avoid eating too much spicy foods as it may aggravate the discomfort felt in the stomach.
- Women should eat lots of soy foods as soy foods are rich in estrogen and help to get rid of hot flushes and night sweats.
- Women should eat foods rich in calcium and other food supplements to avoid symptoms of menopause.
- One should do regular exercise to boost up the immune systme and to strengthen the muscles of reproductive parts.
- Meditation and yoga exercise also helps in reducing stress. Women should do regular yoga exercise to enhance the strenght of pelvic floor muscles.