& Healing Centre
|
|
|
Menopause.
In adult human females who still have a uterus, and who are not
pregnant or lactating, postmenopause is identified by a permanent (at least one
year's) absence of monthly periods or menstruation. In women without a uterus,
menopause or postmenopause is identified by a very high FSH
(Follicle-stimulating hormone) level.
In human females, menopause usually happens more or less in midlife, signaling
the end of the fertile phase of a woman's life. Menopause is perhaps most easily
understood as the opposite process to menarche, the start of the monthly
periods. However, menopause in women cannot satisfactorily be defined simply as
the permanent "stopping of the monthly periods", because in reality what is
happening to the uterus is quite secondary to the process; it is what is
happening to the ovaries that is the crucial factor.
As an illustration of this point: for medical reasons, the uterus must sometimes
be surgically removed (hysterectomy) in a younger woman; her periods will cease
permanently, and the woman will technically be infertile, but as long as at
least one of her ovaries is still functioning, the woman will not have reached
menopause. Even without the presence of the uterus, ovulation and the release of
the sequence of reproductive hormones will continue to cycle on, until menopause
is reached. But in circumstances where a woman's ovaries are removed (oophorectomy),
even if the uterus were to be left intact, the woman will immediately be in
"surgical menopause".
Thus menopause is based on the natural or surgical cessation of hormone
production by the ovaries, which are a part of the body's endocrine system of
hormone production, in this case the hormones which make reproduction possible
and can influence sexual behavior. The resultant decreased levels of circulating
estrogen impacts the entire cascade of a woman's reproductive functioning, from
brain to skin.
The menopause transition, and post-menopause itself, is a natural life change,
not a disease state or a disorder. The transition itself can be challenging for
a number of women, but for others it is not difficult.
In the normal
menstrual cycle, only estrogen is produced for the first 10-12
days. Ovulation then tells the female body to produce
progesterone, and the hormones are in balance. No hormone
imbalance symptoms.
Progesterone sustains the endometrium, so it can receive a
fertilized egg if pregnancy occurs. If there's no pregnancy,
then the body stops producing both hormones, and menstruation
occurs.
BUT - let's say you have NO ovulation one month (a typical
premenopause event).
Then the estrogen already produced for that month is NEVER
balanced by progesterone, which can only be produced with
ovulation.
Many women in their early 30's and 40's are actually in
premenopause and therefore produce estrogen, but LESS
progesterone. THIS is hormone imbalance and is causing hormone
imbalance symptoms, symptoms female hormone imbalance and
fluctuations in hormone levels.
Estrogen is still produced in the monthly cycle (you'll have a
monthly period), but a missed ovulation means no progesterone is
made! And unbalanced estrogen is...TOXIC! Look at the next
paragraph below which shows the symptoms of too much of estrogen
by itself.
"Too much estrogen" has a name in some parts of medicine -
"estrogen dominance". And since we're using it, let's call this
a hormone imbalance condition and symptoms female hormone
imbalance.
Estrogen dominance causes the following list of complaints:
Hair loss, fibrocystic breasts, uterine fibroids, acceleration
of the aging process, breast cancer, polycystic ovaries, mood
swings, osteoporosis, uterine cancer, memory loss, endometrial
cancer, bone loss, PMS, low sex drive, allergy symptoms, thyroid
dysfunction, water retention, bloating and unexplained weight
gain.
Different women will have different symptoms of hormone
imbalance or symptoms female hormone imbalance, singly or in
combination.
Most women have fewer ovulations as they get older, which means
MORE estrogen and LESS progesterone in their systems. More
fluctuations in hormone levels and hormone imbalance symptoms.
And then premenopause and menopause symptoms have an open door
to march right in!
So what do YOU do?
If you do nothing, you get and KEEP hormone imbalance symptoms,
in other words, you get premenopause or menopause symptoms.
But supplemental progesterone can STOP THE SPREAD OF - or even
ELIMINATE - those symptoms female hormone imbalance.
Now - at this point, you should think Natural Progesterone is a
good thing. And it IS! Progesterone can stop hormone imbalance
symptoms, symptoms female hormone imbalance and causes of
hormone imbalance!
So what do you do? Again - BALANCE is the key! Stopping hormone
imbalance and getting BACK into balance is the key.
On average, women who smoke cigarettes experience menopause significantly
earlier than non-smokers.
Please Look at Hormone Balance for more Info.
