Understanding Menopause

What is menopause?

While many women do not have menopause symptoms, many do, and these symptoms can range from irritating to debilitating.

Menopause is gaining increasing awareness for the ways it can potentially sideswipe a woman. Not every woman has symptoms of menopause, but many do, and the symptoms can range from the irritating to the downright debilitating.

Technically, menopause is when you haven’t had a menstrual cycle for 12 months (excluding things like having a Mirena in place). Really, it is about the ovaries finishing their work, and the rest of the body reacting to that. Hot flushes are the most common, and often the most debilitating, symptom of menopause. More than just being a little red in the face, the sweating can be absolutely drenching, and women can wake up in the morning in a pool of their own sweat.

Other common symptoms are increasing irritability and depression, vaginal dryness leading to increasing infections and discomfort, loss of libido, and skin changes that can make you feel like you have ants crawling over your skin.

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is often the first line of treatment, but it is not the only way of treating symptoms. Whilst HRT can protect your heart health and bone health, it is not for everyone. There are other options that can be explored based on your specific symptoms.

Remember that the symptoms of menopause aren’t confined to the end of your menstrual cycle. For some women there is a prolonged perimenopause, wherein they have the symptoms but still have a menstrual cycle. Regardless, there are still ways tomanage the symptoms, so that women can feel comfortable in their own skin as they move through the change of life.