Perimenopause Symptoms – 10 Common Symptoms Of Perimenopause

Perimenopause symptoms are most often experienced by women in their late 30′s, 40′s or early 50′s. The perimenopause symptoms such as fluctuating menstrual cycles can signal the slowing down of reproductive capabilities.

Perimenopause (or peri menopause) can be defined as the time before menopause. Menopause is the cessation of menstrual periods for twelve months in a row. Having symptoms of perimenopause can mean that the woman is getting closer to the age of menopause and the ending of monthly menstrual periods.

Here are common symptoms of perimenopause:

• Changes in the Menstrual Cycle (menstrual flow can be heavier or lighter, longer or shorter time between periods, irregular flow)

• Lumpy or Tender Breasts

• Water Retention, Bloating

• Problems with Sleep

• “Foggy, Fuzzy” Thinking, Difficulty Concentrating

• Anxiety, Mood Swings, Depression

• PMS

• Hot Flashes, Night Sweats

• Vaginal Dryness

• Unexplained Weight Gain

Perimenopause and menopause will affect each woman differently. Your only one of the perimenopause symptoms may be that your period stops. However, you may have one or more of the other symptoms of perimenopause. Perimenopause symptoms can be experienced by a woman for a few months or they can last for years. Since the average age of menopause is 51, symptoms of perimenopause can appear in a woman’s late 30′s, any time in her 40′s or early 50′s.

During perimenopause, many women begin experiencing their first symptoms of hormone imbalance. How does hormone imbalance happen?

According to Harvard-trained physician Dr. John Lee, perimenopause symptoms appear because ovulation occurs less frequently or not at all in the years before menopause. When a woman is healthy and ovulating, estrogen is produced during the first part of the menstrual cycle and following ovulation, progesterone is produced during the latter part of the monthly cycle.

With ovulation required for the monthly production of progesterone, if there’s no ovulation, no progesterone will be produced. With declining progesterone production, perimenopause can be the time women experience the onset of hormone imbalance, causing symptoms of perimenopause.

How can a woman tell if the symptoms of perimenopause are related to hormone imbalance? One way is to take a leading womens clinic test for hormone health and related perimenopause symptoms. The health test is free and it takes just a few minutes.

Copyright 2006 InfoSearch Publishing

Induced Menopause is Not the End

Many women see induced menopause as the end of their life. The thought of not being able to have children is often seen as a death sentence to a younger woman who is forced to go through menopause. They are not worried about menopause relief, menopausal symptoms, pain, or perimenopause. These women are only concerned about not being able to bare children.

Women who have undergone a surgical procedure to have their ovaries removed are forced into an early symptom menopause. They do not go through premenopausal reactions or have any other sign of premenopause; instead, women who have an induction of menopause are thrust into the world of hot flashes, night sweats, and emotions. An induced hot flash is just not the same as a hot flash at the age of 55

Menopause that is caused by a medical condition such as certain drug or radiation therapies is hard for a young woman to come to terms with. Many times the illness related to the drug therapy, or radiation, came on quickly and without warning. Within a matter of weeks or even days, their doctor may have brought up the discussion of inducing menopause.

Removing the ovaries can also induce menopause. For women who have had a surgically induced type of menopause, fertility ends immediately. Levels of estrogen and testosterone will decline much more rapidly than natural menopause. For women who have to go through this type of menopause, the symptoms can be exaggerated and extremely hard to deal with.

All the normal symptoms of menopause are present, like:

Hot Flashes
Night Sweats
Irritability
Mood Swings
Anxiety
Depression
Formication… the feeling of creepy crawlies all over your body!

None of these menopausal symptoms are fun to go through during natural menopause. When a woman is thrust into menopause, these symptoms can be completely unbearable. The extreme nature of a forced menopause can include one symptom that is exaggerated or it can include all the symptoms being exaggerated at the same time.

On a more positive note…women who go through a forced menopause are likely to suffer their symptoms for a much shorter time period than a woman who goes through natural menopause. Natural menopause can last several years but a forced menopause will last only a fraction of that time.

Menopause is a time of great change throughout a woman’s body and her life. For women who go through natural menopause, they have time to prepare for the changes that are about to take place. For a woman who undergoes a forced early menopause, the body and life changes are fast and often unexpected. This expedited menopause can leave the woman with dramatically increased menopause symptoms, which can be very difficult to handle. The plus side is that a forced menopause will not last long.

So for any woman, who has to go through an abrupt menopause, remember that it is not the end and life will go on!

Early Menopause Symptoms – How Early Symptoms of Menopause Can Occur

For early menopause symptoms, are you wondering if early symptoms of menopause are what you are experiencing? Certain early menopause symptoms can be considered normal while others indicate underlying health problems.

First, keep in mind that menopause is a natural process for women and not some illness. Menopause is actually a specific date, the day that the end of menstrual cycles has occurred for twelve consecutive months. At some point in life as a woman ages, it is normal that the reproductive cycle slows and eventually ceases functioning.

However, the thirties and early forties are usually premature for early symptoms of menopause to be experienced unless there are health problems or unless there has been a hysterectomy. So what is going on?

Often, women are asking so much of their bodies. Today’s woman probably has a demanding career along with family responsibilities. A stressful lifestyle likely exists with little time to attend to her own needs. There is no time to exercise and unwind from the stress of the work day. Over the months and years, the result is a toll taken on the health and well-being of a woman and early menopause symptoms.

Along with the demands required of her body, she may not be providing her body with the support needed to perform as it was designed. For example, excess caffeine and/or alcohol consumption drain the body of valuable nutrients. With little time to exercise, she may have low energy and at the same time be putting on unwanted pounds which adds to the problem instead of helping. Her eating choices may not be the best, which further depletes her body of the nutrients it requires.

This demanding lifestyle along with inadequate support can lead to experiencing one or more of the early menopause symptoms.

Common early symptoms of menopause for women are:

* Endometriosis

* Hot flashes, night sweats

* Irregular menstrual cycles

* Light or heavy menstrual flow

* Mood swings

* PMS

* Problems with sleep

* Tender or lumpy breasts

* Uterine fibroid tumors

* Vaginal dryness

* Weight gain, especially around the waist and hips

One or more of these early menopause symptoms for women may begin as early as her late twenties or thirties. And a common cause of symptoms of early menopause is hormone imbalance or the incorrect levels of her two primary hormones, estrogen and progesterone.

In a healthy woman having normal menstrual cycles, estrogen is produced for the first ten to twelve days after the previous menstrual flow. If ovulation occurs, the female body then produces progesterone for the next twelve days or so. If pregnancy does not happen, levels of both progesterone and estrogen will drop at around day 28 and menstruation begins.

However, if there is no ovulation, there will be no progesterone production that cycle since ovulation is needed for progesterone to be made in the ovaries. The result is a deficiency of the hormone progesterone and an excess of estrogen, creating hormone imbalance and early menopause symptoms. And with menopause and no ovulation, progesterone levels are reduced to zero.

All the while, estrogen is still being produced, creating more hormone imbalance and early symptoms of menopause. Besides continued estrogen production, estrogen is usually obtained from other sources. Exposure to household chemicals and cleaners, birth control pills, foods sprayed with pesticides and new construction materials and furnishings in homes are examples of sources of estrogen that leads to excess estrogen accumulation in the body.

This condition of too much estrogen in the body is called estrogen dominance. If estrogen levels in the woman’s body increase beyond what is healthy, early menopause symptoms will be experienced.

How can a woman tell if she is experiencing hormone imbalance symptoms? Learn more about additional early signs of menopause and symptoms of hormone imbalance. Understand as much as you can about your health, your specific symptoms, what those symptoms may be telling you and physician-recommended natural treatments.

Copyright 2007 InfoSearch Publishing

Learn how to treat the symptoms of male menopause including hot flashes and episodic sweating with expert medical advice from a trained doctor and scientist in this free online health care video clip. Expert: Dr. Susan Jewell Bio: Dr. Susan Jewell is a British born educated bilingual Asian with a British accent and can speak Cantonese. Filmmaker: Nili Nathan
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Treatment for Early Menopause

What is Menopause? Menopause is not a strange disease or an infirmity that sucks our sleep and life. In other words, the change or the halt of the menstrual cycles results in menopause. If the menopause stops before the age of 40 then it is called the early menopause. It is stated in the research that nearly 15%of the women are affected by early menopause.

If the ovaries in women run out of the functioning eggs then it results in menopause. The symptoms of early menopause are very much similar to that of the natural menopause. The symptoms of early menopause are: rapid decline in estrogen. The reduction in the count of estrogen makes you easily affected by early menopause. The women may experience several symptoms during this period. Some of the symptoms are hot flushes, night sweats, aches and pains, itching sensations, head aches, tiredness, reduced sex drive, frequent urination, depression, loss of sleep, forgetfulness, inactiveness, vaginal dryness etc. The emotional problems are also related to the early menopause. The women who undergoes surgical menopause also experienced the symptoms of early menopause.

The Pelvic surgeries such as hysterectomy causes early menopause. Some of the women feel uncomfortable during sexual intercourse it is also a symptom of early menopause. The depression in mind is also one of the reasons. It can be overcome when one relax their mind by talking with the counselor.

The recommended tips for the early menopause treatment are:

-    Relieving of menopausal hot flashes by hormone therapy. The hormone therapy naturally reduce the hot flashes, vaginal dryness, slowing bone loss, improve sleep, and reduce mood swings.

-    The hot flashes can be reduced by Gabapentin, and it is an approved one to treat seizures.

-    Cyclical therapy where the count of estrogen can be improved by taking pills or a patch.

-    The emotional burst out resulting in the high blood pressure is one of the main reasons. It can be treated by taking pills or patch like Clonidine.

-    The estrogen count can be administered locally by using vaginal tablet, ring or cream.

-    The intake of Soy that contains phytoestrogen can help women to overcome early menopause.

-    The intake of medications and drugs that contain bio-identical hormones can free the women from early menopause. It is highly recommended for the women to undertake treatments only after proper consultation with the doctors.

-    The Estrogen therapy is also available in the market. It can be taken either as pills or the food items that have estrogen are highly recommended. The estrogen prescribed for you can be taken orally so that it get directly into the GI track and end up predominantly as estrogen.

-    Regular physical exercise will relieve or help us to free from the discomforts of menopause. It is highly recommended for the women to have strong, healthy and fit physic.

-    The intake of healthy food items that has fats, vitamins and calcium are important to increase the count of estrogen.

-    There are also some ayurvedic, herbal and acupuncture treatment to overcome the problems of early menopause. These treatments are highly advisable as they have no side effects.

-    Progesterone is another therapy used to treat early menopause. It is either synthetic or in forms of pills. It should be taken orally to overcome the emotional ups and downs of women. It helps a lot to free women from high blood pressure.

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Signs And Symptoms Of Menopause – Top 12 Menopause Symptoms

Are there signs and symptoms of menopause? Absolutely! It is a logical question to ask with millions of women experiencing one or more of the signs and symptoms of menopause at this very moment! The so-called ‘change’ will happen, but experiencing many of the symptoms of menopause as early as ages 30′s or 40′s is not normal.

Some of the signs listed below are subtle and may appear to have little relationship to being menopause symptoms. Here is a list of common signs and symptoms of menopause:

1 – Allergy symptoms

2 – Chronic fatigue and morning sluggishness

3 – Craving sweets, caffeine and carbohydrates with unstable blood sugar levels

4 – Depression, anxiety and mood swings

5 – Endometriosis

6 – Facial hair growth

7 – Hair loss, thinning hair

8 – Low metabolism

9 – Symptoms of low thyroid with normal T3 and T4 levels

10 – Urinary tract and yeast infections

11 – Uterine fibroids

12 – Water retention, unexplained weight gain especially in hips, waist and stomach

Menopause is not a disease, rather, menopause is a normal natural process for a woman whereby there will be a slowing and eventually a shutdown of the reproductive system. However, the problem is that many of the signs and symptoms of menopause indicate hormonal imbalance exists and there can have been damage to the body from eating poorly, stress and obesity. With the average age of menopause being about 51 in the USA, many women in the USA and industrialized countries experience one or more of these signs and symptoms of menopause many years earlier.

In the normal menstrual cycle, estrogen is the main hormone produced for the first 10-12 days following the previous menstrual flow. If ovulation occurs, the female body then produces progesterone which continues for the next 12 days or so. If there is no pregnancy, progesterone and estrogen levels both drop at around day 28 and menstruation begins. However, if there is no ovulation, progesterone will not be produced that month. This event is called an annovulatory cycle and is a typical occurrence today for women in their 30′s and 40′s. The result is that the woman then has an excess of estrogen and a deficiency of the vital hormone progesterone.

Many women in their 30′s and 40′s are actually having fewer ovulations, creating hormone imbalance and the signs and symptoms of menopause. And when ovulation ceases at menopause, progesterone levels fall to nearly zero. At the same time, estrogen is still being produced at perhaps 50% of the premenopause levels, again leading to hormone imbalance and the resulting signs and symptoms of menopause. If the woman has had a hysterectomy, surgical menopause means the woman no longer ovulates and produces progesterone.

Besides the signs and symptoms of menopause caused by missed ovulations or hysterectomy, excess estrogen is obtained every day from other sources. Examples are birth control pills, household chemicals and pesticides, foods that have been sprayed and construction materials.

How can a woman tell if the signs and symptoms of menopause are hormone imbalance related? One way is to take an online test for hormone health and related symptoms. The health test is used daily in a leading women’s health clinic, it takes just a few minutes online and it’s free.

Learn as much as you can about natural progesterone and estrogen supplementation and physician-recommended natural treatments for dealing with hormone imbalance and the symptoms of menopause.

Copyright 2006 InfoSearch Publishing

Woman and Menopause: Symptoms and Treatment

Menopause is the stage in a woman’s life when the menstrual cycle stops. This is not a disease; rather it is a natural process in a woman’s life. However, the stage when a woman has her menopause could be a very painful and mentally debilitating stage. There could be several complications.

From an Ayurvedic point of view, menses is the flow of excess pitta from the woman’s body. Menses is called as Raja in Ayurveda. For this reason, the stoppage of the menses flow permanently, i.e. menopause is called as Raja Nivrutti, which literally means retirement of menses.

Menopause is a culmination of all the three doshas of the woman’s body. The menses themselves are pitta, while the woman may gain in her weight during this time. This indicates a kapha imbalance. Since the woman may become moody and even lose her sleep during menopause, there is a strong indication of the vata dosha at play also.

Menopause can occur in women after the age of 45 years, though this widely varies from one woman to another. The average menopausal age could be taken as 51 years. It must be made clear that menopause is not an abrupt end to the menses. The decline of the menstrual flow occurs gradually as the months progress. Generally, a woman is said to have had her menopause if there has been no menstrual flow for at least one year.

(1) Useful Herbs in the Treatment of Menopause

1. Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera)

Ashwagandha is more popularly known as Indian Ginseng for its believed aphrodisiacal properties. In the case of menopause, this herb is usually prescribed to cure insomnia and mood swings.

2. Beetroot (Beta vulgaris)

Beetroot is found to be extremely effective in making the menopausal experience less painful. It should be taken as a salad, in which the beetroots are boiled with their peel on. The peel must be removed before eating.

3. Indian Spikenard (Nardostachys jatamansi)

Known popularly as the jatamansi in India, this is another herb prescribed to cure insomnia and mood swings. For such benefits, this herb is prescribed to be taken along with ashwagandha.

(2) Dietary Treatments for Menopause

The complications during menopause can be reduced by bringing about changes in the dietary patterns. There are some very beneficial points that can be followed:-

4. Bitter foods are good dietary indications. The dark green leafy vegetables are mostly bitter in taste. They must be regularly incorporated in the diet as a woman is moving towards her menopause.

5. Astringent foods are also advantageous. These foods include beans, soybeans, potatoes, cabbages and poultry foods. Both the bitter and the astringent foods help in reducing the excess heat in the woman’s body that is produced during menopause.

6. Foods that are sour, salty and pungent are contra-indications for menopause. Onions, garlic, mustard and chilies are pungent foods. Tomatoes, tamarinds, vinegars and curds are sour foods. These must be avoided.

7. Consume foods that can provide some phyto-estrogens. Such foods are watermelon, berries, legumes, licorice and pomegranates.

During menopause, the need of the following nutrients increases:-

a) Vitamin D – obtained from egg yolk, milk and animal liver

b) Vitamin K – obtained from green vegetables, cereals and animal foods

c) Magnesium – obtained from nuts, bananas and dairy products

d) Manganese – obtained from cereal, bran, nuts and tea

e) Calcium – obtained from milk and milk products.

(3) Ayurvedic Treatments for Menopause

Chandraprabha is the tablet of choice that most physicians would provide for menopausal problems. This tablet helps in reducing the vata vitiation which is one of the foremost causes of menopausal problems. Along with this, Punarnavasava or Lodhrasava must be taken thrice in 15 milliliters doses for a month. In order to increase the strength of the body, Dashamoolarishta and Pradari Lauha are prescribed.

If there are hot flushes during menopause (which increase body temperature and then cause sudden chills), then Ashokarishta is given along with Useerasava.

For any irritations or infections that may occur in the vagina during menopause, Gokshuradi Guggulu is prescribed to be taken in doses of two pills twice a day.

Massaging the back with Chandanaadi taila helps to allay insomnia and mood swings which can occur due to vata vitiations during menopause.

(4) Home Remedies for Menopause

1. Licorice must be consumed in fair amounts during menopause. It has the phyto-estrogens that are necessary to correct the hormonal imbalances during menopause.

2. Have beetroot juice daily or include it in salads.

3. Another recipe is to boil a few carrot seeds in a glassful of milk. Consume this milk with carrot seeds in it on a daily basis.

4. During menopause, there is a chance of osteoporosis setting in due to loss of calcium. Hence take adequate care of your calcium intake. The foods mentioned above must be had in the proper amount to maintain calcium levels.

5. Maintain a healthy active regime. Sluggishness and a sedentary life will make the menopausal process quite difficult.