Menopause - Symptoms, Treatment and Prevention

What is Menopause?

Natural menopause is caused by aging, while medical and cold turkey have to do with medical procedures and hormonal therapy. Women who go through medical menopause are those who have had hysterectomies or chemotherapy. There are many symptoms and side effects that woman need to be aware of and learn about before the age of menopause sets in on them.

According to studies, the average age that menopause sets in is approximately fifty one years, however, women who smoke can have a shift in the age as much as a year and a half ea
rly. Many women think, “Menopause is going to be painful and depressing, right?” The answer is no, it doesn’t have to be. While there are the many negatives to menopause and menopausal shift, there are some positives as well. A recent medical study showed that approximately ten percent of women cease menstruation immediately, good news for those who go through painful menstrual cycles.

However, once menopause starts, life seems to go downhill for a lot of women but there is good news. There are ways that will help lessen the discomfort, pain, and depression that women go through while their bodies are going through one of the biggest changes of their lives. There are herbal remedies to exercises for the body and mind to acupuncture, all of which will help a woman going through menopause or post menopause.

The statistics about menopause are startling, to say the least. It is calculated that 1.1 billion women will have menopause and menopausal symptoms in the year 2025. Now, that sounds like a long way off, but in reality it isn’t that far, less than twenty years off. According to a medical study done in 2002, one out of eight women end up with breast cancer and one out of three contract heart disease. While those numbers may seem small, the reality is that heart disease is the leading cause of death for woman who are sixty-five years of age and over and only a third of women that contract heart disease die before the age of sixty five.

According to the same study, thirty percent of women die from heart disease, three percent from complications caused by osteoporosis and only three percent die from breast cancer. Women who go through breast cancer and the chemotherapy that comes with it at an early age will go through menopause at an earlier age. This is due to the stopping of hormonal therapy after they are in remission.

Symptoms

While every woman knows about the menopausal symptom of hot flashes and lowered sex drive, there are several more that women may not know about. The lowered sex drive is just a broad approach to the many symptoms that contribute to a decreased libido. Vaginal dryness and yeast infections are the major causes of decreased libidos, largely in part because they make sex painful and uncomfortable for the woman.

Also, many women will notice normal vaginal discharge that can be a bit off color and make them conscientious about sexual intercourse. The most common treatment for vaginal dryness is to use a personal lubricant during sex and use feminine lotions that won’t cause irritation or pain. There are many yeast infection creams that are medicated and usually take between three and seven days to clear up a yeast infection. Estrogen cream that is directly applied to the vaginal walls can help lessen the dryness and discharge and may help to increase libido. There is also another type of treatment called the Estring, a ring that contains estrogen cream that is directly inserted into the vagina, much like a diaphragm.

Read More: First symptoms a woman deals in perimenopause and their effects on her mind

Depression is a huge symptom of menopause. Menopause symbolizes the end of the child bearing age and for the women who never had children this can be a very emotionally painful time in their lives. Suicide is not common for women going through menopause; however, many women go to therapists and counselors for suicidal thoughts. There are many types of treatment for women going through menopausal depression.

Dealing with Symptoms

There are the usual prescribed antidepressants such as Prozac, Zoloft, and Lexapro but those can have their side effects like problems sleeping, dry mouth, nausea, upset stomach, and diarrhea. Behavioral counseling may help but then again the woman must want to be there in order to help herself get through menopausal depression. The last kind of treatment is herbal remedies. Using herbs and spices to treat and cure illness and depression is an old, time honored tradition that people have been using for years.

Feverfew is an example of an herbal remedy for pain and depression relief as well as primrose oil, sage leaf extract, and dried rosemary. While dried herbs are good to use, many herbal specialists will advise you to use a tincture, a capsule filled with a liquid extract, instead of the dried form of the herbs because they tend to start working a bit faster. It is always recommended that you speak with your doctor and an herbal specialist before you start any kind of herbal remedy routine. This is for your general knowledge and overall safety. Natural, herbal products such as oils, dried herbs, and candles can be purchased for as little as five dollars and the specialist at the shop will be able to help you out in your selection.

Of course, the most widely known symptom of menopause is hot flashes. Hot flashes are caused by the fluctuations of hormones once menopause has set in. There are many triggers that will cause you to be uncomfortable. A few of these are alcohol, a hot bed, caffeine, smoking, and the spicy foods that you love. While you will be uncomfortable during these flashes of heat, there are some ways to survive their sudden onset.
 

Activities and lifestyle

Wear lighter fabrics like cotton or rayon. These help to let heat escape and let air in to help keep you cool. If you can carry a bottle of cold water with you or can access ice water often, do it. This will help cool your inner organs and will help you get through the heat. Another thing that will help when a hot flash sets in is a cool shower. You might want to turn the water temperature down as far as you can. However, you want the water cool to your touch, but not frigid. Cooling the body too fast can cause shock and/or heart failure.

There are a few more symptoms that tend to irritate not only the woman going through menopause, but also tends to irritate those who are close to her. Mood swings, fatigue, low to no sex drive and insomnia are the most common. While there are prescribed medications to help ease these symptoms and help you sleep, there are more healthy and natural ways.

Being more active will help you sleep at night, especially if you run, work out, or practice pilates or yoga. Yoga emphasizes more on breathing, while pilates focuses more on muscle toning. If you’ve never done yoga or pilates, it is a workout for both the body and mind that will leave you feeling relaxed. Meditation, massage and acupuncture will help you to relax your mind and body. There are books out about meditation and many massage clinics have special prices and deals if you refer or go with a friend. When deciding on massage or acupuncture clinics, make sure you ask them about the way that they clean their tables and what product they use to clean with. There would be nothing worse than to go into a clinic to relax and end up with an allergic reaction to the sanitizing solution that they use. Acupuncture is best when it is done by someone who has been doing it for years and is fully certified, and then you can be sure that they know what they are doing to relax you to the maximum.

Preventing Menopause

Preventing menopause, for the time being, is purely pharmaceutical. Menopause literally is a failure of the ovaries. There are medications out there that can help to prevent the failure, however, a person either needs extremely good insurance or needs to be able to afford the costly medications. The side effects that are caused by the hormonal medications tend to be nausea, headache, dry mouth, fever, upset stomach, depression, and diarrhea, though different women react differently to the medications.

Eventually, you would get over the side effects and settle into a more natural routine with the medications. Menopausal prevention is entirely possible but it is an expensive route. Perhaps someone will come up with a completely natural way to prevent menopause. One that contains a healthier, safer, more cost effective treatment plan that people who can’t afford expensive medications will be able to pay for or can be covered by health insurance.

Read More: Menopause and Insomnia - 10 Tips to Overcome Sleeplessness

Herbal remedies, exercises for body and mind, statistics, and expensive menopause preventive medications. All of these can seem overwhelming when a woman takes them to heart and starts thinking about them all at once. Breaking down the information, and starting to study about how their bodies will change when they are in their thirties or forties will help ease the shock of the sudden changes.

Taking each day, a step at a time, and remembering that there are ways to ease the discomfort and depression will help make menopausal symptoms seem like an every day occurrence. Remember that smoking will cause menopause to happen a year and a half early and that alcohol and caffeine will stimulate hot flashes. While it will take time for a woman to fully adjust to the fact that her body is going through multiple changes, eventually they will get used to the type of therapy that they decide to use that they feel is best for them and their body.