Every woman goes through the process of menopause in her life. This phase in a woman's life is just as disruptive as the first menstrual bleeding. Menopause is part of the cycle of life.
In society, menopause is often still viewed as something negative, while the first menstruation generally has positive connotations. People don't talk or hear about menopause very often, except in close circles of friends or family.
We want to give this important phase in a woman’s life the attention it deserves.
What exactly happens during menopause, why we should welcome it, what symptoms occur during menopause and how we can alleviate them - that's what we would like to take a closer look at in a two-part series of articles .
What is menopause actually?
Menopause, also known as the menopause, is the point in a woman's life when her menstrual cycles stop and she is no longer able to become pregnant. Menopause is generally diagnosed when a woman has not had a menstrual period for one year.
Most women experience menopause between the ages of 45 and 55, although this can vary greatly from woman to woman. There are also women, more now than ever, who have children at age 45.
As a natural part of the aging process, women enter menopause when the ovaries produce less estrogen and progesterone. This hormonal change can lead to a number of physical changes, in addition to the cessation of menstruation.
In the years before and after menopause, women often experience symptoms that are perceived as unpleasant. Some examples of these symptoms include hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings, sleep disturbances and vaginal dryness.
But what exactly changes in the female body when she reaches menopause?
What happens in a woman’s body during menopause
While a woman is in her reproductive years, her body, more specifically her ovaries, produce the hormones estrogen and progesterone , which are responsible for regulating her menstrual cycle.
The menstrual cycle serves to prepare the female body for a possible pregnancy. The ovaries produce follicles in which the egg cells mature.
Over the course of a woman's lifetime, the number of follicles in her ovaries decreases, which is related to the decline in estrogen and progesterone production, reducing the chances of becoming pregnant. Therefore, pregnancy becomes increasingly unlikely for a woman as she ages.
In figures: The chance of pregnancy per year of life for women under 25, for example, is around 90 percent. Between the ages of 24 and 35, the probability is only 70 percent, and for 35- to 40-year-olds, it is only 20 percent. Of course, these statistics cannot be applied exactly to every woman's body, but they confirm the trend that the chances of pregnancy decrease significantly with increasing age.
This natural aging process of a woman culminates in menopause, where the menstrual cycle stops completely and no new follicles are produced. However, a woman's estrogen levels do not stop completely after menopause, but they do decrease significantly.
Why does menopause occur?
Interestingly, this question about the cause of this biological change as a result of aging is still part of research and cannot yet be fully answered. There are various theories about why menopause arose in the course of human evolution.
What we know: a woman’s monthly menstruation demands a lot of energy from her body.
It is possible that the aging body reduces the production of estrogen as the hormones are no longer essential. When the hormone levels drop to a certain level, menstruation becomes irregular and eventually stops altogether.
Another evolutionary theory is that menopause serves to shift a woman's focus from reproduction to caring for and supporting offspring. This could be achieved by changing hormonal signals in the body that cause a post-menopausal woman to invest more time and energy in caring for grandchildren or other relatives.
Another theory is that menopause serves to increase the probability of survival of the overall population by causing older women to focus their resources away from reproduction and instead on other activities that support the survival of the community. That menopause is an evolutionary adaptation to changing environmental conditions that require a longer life span is another theory put forward by evolutionary researchers.
Interesting in this context: Menopause occurs not only in humans, but also in various animal species, including some primates. This indicates that it has an evolutionary function. However, the exact reasons and mechanisms that led to the emergence of menopause are still the subject of research and discussion.
The symptoms during menopause
A main reason for the symptoms and discomfort during menopause is the aforementioned drop in the hormone estrogen.
Estrogen is an important regulator of the menstrual cycle and the hormone also affects many other body systems such as the bone and cardiovascular systems, the brain and the skin. Therefore, when the ovaries stop producing estrogen during menopause, a variety of symptoms may occur, including:
- Hot flashes and sweating
- Sleep disorders
- Mood swings such as irritability, depression and anxiety
- Memory and concentration problems
- Joint pain and stiffness
- Bone loss
- Dry skin and hair loss
- Vaginal dryness and pain during intercourse
These symptoms can vary from woman to woman and also vary in intensity. Some women can cope with mild discomfort, while others experience severe symptoms that can affect their quality of life.
However, menopause also has positive aspects, which we would like to discuss in more detail.
Menopause – a natural change with positive aspects
Although menopause can be associated with debilitating symptoms for many women, there are also some positive effects that come from the hormonal changes that occur after menopause.
One of the positive effects is that postmenopausal women are no longer faced with the constraints and stresses of the menstrual cycle and the possibility of unwanted pregnancy. This can help women to have better physical and emotional health.
In addition, leisure activities and sports can be carried out after the menopause without restrictions and pain, as the period and its symptoms and cramps no longer occur.
Another benefit of menopause is that women have a lower risk of developing certain diseases that are related to estrogen and progesterone levels, such as breast and ovarian cancer and endometriosis. Because the ovaries produce fewer hormones after menopause, the risk of these diseases is reduced.
In addition, menopause can also be a time of change and self-reflection for many women. Most women have completed family planning by the time they reach menopause and can now focus more on other aspects of their lives, such as hobbies, travel and personal development.
Relief of symptoms
In order to welcome this new phase of life and make the transition as pleasant as possible, women today are fortunately offered various natural and specially designed nutritional supplements to regulate hormone levels, can relieve discomfort and promote the woman’s general well-being.
You can find out what these are – especially colostrum –, how they help and what they do in the second part of this series of articles: “ Menopausal symptoms: How dietary supplements can help provide relief – in 8 points ”.
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