Menopause: What is it?
INTRODUCTION:
Humans will experience aging process. That is a part of human life. Once a woman reach the age of 30 years old and above aging process begins. Fine lines will begin to appear, skin tone will change, and menstrual cycle begins to change and a lot more. The changes are brought about by old age and hormonal changes. These hormonal changes bring big changes in the physical appearance of the person and even in the body itself. And one of these physical changes is menopause. Woman will experience menopausal stage when they reach the age of 50 years old and above. Let us discover the causes and symptoms that brought by menopausal phase.
DEFINITIONS AND SYMPTOMS:
Menopause is described as a physiologic cessation of menses. It is considered that a woman is menopause once her menses has not occurred within the period of 12 months. However, before reaching the menopausal phase, every woman should undergo the transition period of perimenopause, during this period, woman’s reproductive functions gradually diminishes and ceases. This period manifest symptoms and clinical manifestations that can be a sign of menopausal state. The symptoms will include, psychological aspects, such as irritability, insomnia, anxiety, memory loss, fear and depression are commonly experience. That is why, middle adult woman are easily get angry and sometimes moody. Another, sexual function symptoms will appear, these are dyspareunia or painful sexual intercourse, this is due to decreases vaginal fluids that acts as a lubricants during intercourse, as well as decreased intensity and duration of sexual response. Another, is vasomotor aspects, it includes hot flushes that accompany by night sweats. Generally, 60-70% of women will experience this kind of symptoms, these is because of hormonal changes in the body. And lastly, the reproductive organ of the female genital will gradually change, the vulva will begin to atrophy, as well as the vagina, the urethra will results in dryness, there is bleeding, itching and burning sensations, dysuria begins to experience, there is thinning of pubic hairs, the labia minora will be loss and decreased of secretions during intercourse will happen and later on create painful during intercourse on the part of the woman.
TEST AND DIAGNOSTICS:
Upon diagnosing the menopause condition, the OB-gyne or the physician who specialize on female reproductive organ condition, will evaluate and based their diagnosis on the symptoms that experience by the woman. However, there are also supporting tests that will conduct in order to evaluate clearly the menopausal state. These are measuring the levels of Luteinizing hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone as well as estradiol; these hormones are the responsible for the menstrual cycle. In the perimenopause to menopausal state, the luteinizing hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone maybe increased while the estradiol will decreased. But, remember this, the levels of this hormones may fluctuate during this period, so it is not the confirmatory tests for correctly diagnosing the menopause. Again, the symptoms are the only key aspects in basing the diagnosis. That is why; the OB-gyne will collectively gather both subjective and objective data regarding the manifestations experience by the woman.
TREATMENT, DRUGS AND SUPPLEMENTS:
Furthermore, there are some women that are being affected by the signs and symptoms of menopause. That is why; they are given management treatment through pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic treatments in order to minimize the symptoms of menopause. These treatments includes hormonal therapy, specifically, estrogen replacement therapy. This kind of hormonal therapy used to reduce the symptoms brought by menopause as well as to prevent osteoporosis and coronary artery diseases. Also, progesterone preparations are given to intact uterus to prevent endometrial hyperplasia for it can cause possible cancer of the uterus. For women who experience atrophic vaginitis, topical preparations can be useful to prevent this to appear again. On the other hand, prevention of vaginal dryness and dyspareunia, vaginal lubricants like Replens and KY jelly can be helpful for this kind of problems. In preventing bone destruction, calcium supplements can be an aide to this. For hot flushes symptoms, vitamin B and E supplements can be given to decreased hot flushes. These are the few suggested treatments on alleviating the clinical manifestations of menopause.
ALTERNATIVE TREATMENTS:
On the other hand, if some women do not want to take any pharmacologic treatments, there are alternative treatments that are really useful to alleviate the symptoms like dietary foods. Encourage the patient to practice the intake of foods that are high in calcium such as dairy products, broccoli, and some fortified cereals, as well as encourage her to involve weight bearing activities in order to prevent osteoporosis. Also, there are foods and herbal remedies that are helpful in minimizing the symptoms. However, these alternative remedies are somehow bring goodness to menopausal symptoms, but before engaging this kind of treatments, be sure that you will discuss it to your physician so that they will advice you medically about your condition.
COMPLICATIONS:
The major complications that menopausal women usually experience will oftentimes lead to osteoporosis, a disease condition of the bone wherein there is a mass destruction on the bone component leading to bone destructions and fractures. This happens because estrogen hormones levels are elevated which will change during menopausal state and this hormone is very useful in building strong bone and promote bone desorption. Second, coronary artery disease develops for some women. Still this condition can be a caused of depleted estrogen level. However, this case is very rare among the women population. And lastly, vulvovaginitis is also related to deplete estrogen levels that the menopausal condition brings. On the other hand, there are conditions that affect the other side of the woman’s life. This is the primarily concerns of the every woman, which is sexual functioning. Due to vaginal dryness, some will experience dyspareunia and sometimes a woman will become depressed because they cannot do the role of a woman. This case, menopausal woman should encourage verbalizing their feelings of sexual dysfunctions and helping them explore positive management in order to function normally as a woman. For depression also, always provide a menopausal woman a support person for them to feel comforted and supported them n every actions they will do. Mostly, complications will be controlled and prevented once menopausal woman seek immediate help of the medical practitioner.
PREVENTIONS:
Generally, we cannot prevent menopausal to happen. As said earlier, it is a part of a woman’s aging process. The changes somehow bring a big adjustment for such women because their lifestyle, habits and daily routine are affected. That is why, for some they feel useless and become depressed. However, there are other alternatives of preventions that will surely help women to function normally and minimized the symptoms that affect them. First, have the menopausal woman an information drive regarding menopausal condition. Have them understand that being in the menopausal state does not loss their function as a woman. That still, there are ways that will help them back again to normal life. Teach them about the information of hormonal treatments. Since menopause is brought by hormonal changes, so the only means of treatments is through hormonal therapy. To prevent depression, encourage menopausal woman to frequently verbalizes feelings about menopause, always discuss to them about the correct information in order to clear up any misconceptions about sexual functioning and the most important with this is, always include the partners upon the discussion so that the partner will know about the changes bring by menopause and be able to know the possible treatments about this. Also, encourage menopausal woman to eat good healthy and nutritious diet that rich in vitamins and minerals so that they will have good body condition and strong immune system that sustain in fighting pathogens. Also, encourage her to engage in regular exercise in order to promote strong bones and to prevent osteoporosis. Always tell the menopausal woman to have an active lifestyle since being in a sedentary lifestyle are not good for their health. And most importantly, regular check ups during this period can be an advantage in assessing and preventing possible diseases to appear. Remember that prevention is better than cure. That is why, it is important to focus more on the prevention part in order to live normally and disease free body.
CONCLUSIONS:
In summary of this, being in the menopause phase is not bad for every woman. It is a part of life that they need to accept; we get old age and undergo aging process. However, we cannot change and control the aging process to happen, as part of menopause, the changes it brings to the life of a woman generally affects them. Furthermore, the symptoms that menopause condition brings big adjustments to them, especially that some of these symptoms gives problems towards the daily and routine activities of a woman. Other also affects the health as well as the sexual functions of being a woman. That is why; women become depressed and anxious because their function as a woman is at risk. But, there are ways to manage and prevent these symptoms to worsens and continuously affects their daily lives. Also, the best management to promote healthy lifestyle is to engage in active lifestyle and undergo changes in order to promote wellness and disease free body. A good diet and regular exercise can be a positive outcome in achieving a good health. And lastly, regular check up can be an aide in assessing further any possible diseases that the body is experiencing.
Majority of the adult female should embrace the importance of understanding what is menopause and when does it occur. Each female will reach this stage and the truth is that it is unpreventable. This is not actually a health problem because it is a normal condition of the body when a woman reaches her menopausal age.
Moreover, this condition can happen to every woman given the fact that they are healthy and fit. There are many problems arise from menopause, the sad thing about this is that, every woman should learn how to deal with it as they would come to face that reality later in their lives.
This condition can bring lots of annoying and irritable symptoms which can really ruin the day not just of the woman but also of the people around her, as they would be affected by his actions and emotions.
Other problems in this condition vary from onset of symptoms and to the severity of it that affects the woman and how long it stays.
Problems may stay for as long as eight years before the final menstruation occurs.
Usually, menopause happens when the female reach the age of 40 until 50.
A woman might suffer from difficulty in coping with the situation that is why their mood is highly affected.
The person will also have hot flushes and usually irritated.
Most of the time, parents who are in this stage are always getting mad at their children even if they did not do anything wrong.
Children, on the other hand, should try to understand them because this is normal.
This is the reason why it is important to know what is menopause and when does it occur.
With this information, you will know if your parents are in this stage and you will know what you need to do.
