Menopause is a turning point in every woman’s life. Falling hormone levels cause a variety of life-changing symptoms, ranging from the tell-tale hot flushes, brain fog and forgetfulness to depression.
Q&A: When does menopause start, what are the symptoms and what can you do about it?
When do women typically start to experience menopause?
Typically women will start the menopause in their late 40s and 50s typically. Some women can experience what we call an early menopause from the age of 45. But any younger that would be very unusual. So typically around late 40s, fifties.
What are the symptoms of menopause?
It will be different for every woman. Because of the production of estrogen and progestogen changing at that time — that’s typically what causes the symptoms.
Regular symptoms that you will hear people talking about are hot flushes and that’s quite common.
‘Some women find that sleeping is a little bit more difficult and also mood swings is a common symptom that we hear about.
A loss of libido and vaginal dryness is very common as well. But as I say, every woman has their own experience. Typically they would be the the most common symptoms that we would come across.
What can women do to cope with hot flushes and mood swings?
With hot flushes there’s some just really simple advice around. Wearing layers and cotton clothing rather than big chunky jumpers.
Hot flushes tend to happen very unexpectedly and quite quickly, so being able to kind of take a layer off when you’re feeling hot and then put it back on again it’s quite useful. And also if you’re sitting at a desk regularly you can get desk fans and handheld fans which are quite quite handy.’
Mood swings will vary from woman to woman because their hormones are unstable and are changing. It’s not unusual to feel at low mood and some people describe brain fog and finding it difficult to concentrate and remember certain things. That’s that’s not unusual.
What other treatments can women have?
There’s lots of treatments available through your GP, including hormone replacement therapy, which can help some women if it’s appropriate for them.So it’s definitely worth talking to your GP about what’s available. And sometimes it takes a little bit of time to find the treatment that works best for you.
‘HRT is a replacement hormonal therapy. So that just corrects the balance of hormones, which in turn supports like most of the symptoms.
Again it’s a very individual experience, the menopause, but some of those supplements and herbal medicines can also really support people through the symptoms.
Does the menopause effect sexual intercourse?
Absolutely. I think it’s not uncommon to for women’s libido to drop during the menopause and that can be quite disturbing for many women. It’s quite common also to have a vaginal dryness which can make intercourse quite uncomfortable, which again impacts on sexual intercourse on relationships.
There are various treatments and locally applied gels that can really help with the dryness.
What piece of advice can you give women who are worried about it?
Menopause is a is a is a natural thing. It’s comes to all of us women at a certain point in time and I think now more than ever, women are talking about it.
Men are talking about it and and I think it’s a really positive step forward. It’s a stage of life where times are changing.
Your periods stop and it’s quite often a time when women reassess where they are in life and think about their careers. And often the time when there might have an empty nest and it’s almost a bit of a turning point for women to step into the next stage.
How do you know if you’ve reached menopause if you’re on the pill?
It was very difficult to know if you’re taking a contraceptive pill because obviously it is a hormone is a hormone treatment in itself. And so therefore the only real way to find out would be to stop using the contraceptive pill and switch to a barrier method and see what’s happening with your normal regular natural cycle.
Source: dailymail.co.uk
