Monday, November 17, 2008

3 Signs of Menopause and Menopause Symptoms

By Grace Lam

Menopause symptoms can affect your quality of life. Signs of menopause can disrupt both the waking and sleeping hours of your busy life for several years. All these symptoms that occur during menopause was developed from the real-life experiences of hundreds of women.

Irregular Periods

The period of time leading up to menopause is often characterized by irregular periods. As menopause approaches, women's hormones become imbalanced, and because the menstrual cycle is entirely dependent upon hormones, irregular periods often occur. Periods may become longer and heavier as ovulation becomes increasing irregular and infrequent.

Menstrual irregularity is most common in the mid forties as you approach menopause. A lack of hormonal balance or a decrease in estrogen production is the main cause of it. There can be medical causes for irregular periods as well, they are not as common though.

Hot Flashes

Hot flushes are a frequent symptom and are reported by almost 85% of women. You will suddenly feel heat in the upper part or all of your body and red blotches may appear on your chest, back, and arms. Flashes can be as mild as a light blush or severe enough to wake you from a sound sleep.

Hot flashes are due to the hypothalamic response to declining ovarian estrogen production. Some women have hot flashes for a very short time during menopause. While it may be impossible to completely avoid hot flashes during menopause, there are certain triggers that may bring them on more frequently or cause them to be more severe.

Heart Palpitations

Heart palpitations scare a lot of women because of their sudden onset, unexpected arrivals, and seemingly no way to stop them. One of the most common symptoms of menopause is the hot flash, which is often accompanied by heart palpitations. In menopausal women, the chances of palpitations being related to heart disease are unlikely.

Remember that other medical conditions can be the cause of heart palpitations to include anxiety, anemia, low blood sugar, certain thyroid problems, and mitral valve prolapse, which is a mild deformity in one of the heart's valves. When it occurs during your bed time, you can change your position and do some deep breathing. If you do have heart palpitations and you have other symptoms such as shortness of breath, dizziness, nausea, pain in the neck, jaw, arm or chest, tightness in the chest, then make sure look into testing for women and heart disease issues and consult your physician.

The menopause symptoms usually last for the whole menopause transition, but some women may experience them for the rest of their lives. The severity or otherwise of the symptoms depend on a variety of factors such as general health, previous surgery and radiation. However, there are a variety of menopause treatments that can be considered to deal with these menopause signs.

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