Abstract

MENOPAUSE: A TIME WHEN PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS CHANGE TOGETHER

*Poorvi Jain and Piyush Mittal

ABSTRACT

Without being the result of medical intervention or surgery, natural menopause is described as the ending of menstrual cycle for a duration of 12 months. There are three phases of menopause: perimenopause, menopause and postmenopause. Starting from perimenopause, it is the stage where the women enter the menopausal phase. When a woman enters her 40’s she also enters the perimenopausal phase. At this stage of menopause, the oestrogen hormone slows its production and results into symptoms like shorter and increasing irregular periods, hot flushes, mood disturbances, night sweats etc. The normal age of menopause onset is 50 years. A woman is considered in menopause, when the menstrual cycle has not occurred for 12 consecutive months. In this phase the ovaries stop working and does not release the eggs. The most frequent symptoms of this phase are hot flushes, night sweats. These hot flushes can also increase the heart rate and this can lead to the cardiovascular risk. Once a woman has crossed a full year without menstrual cycle, she has arrived in the postmenopausal phase. A woman will remain at this stage in her whole life. At this phase women also start getting comorbid conditions related to bones and joints. Due to the decreased oestrogen level, women start developing the risk conditions of osteoporosis, and as well as heart conditions.

Keywords: Menopause, menstrual cycle, cardiovascular risk, hot flushes, mood disturbance, night sweats.