What is menopause?
The menopause is a life transition during which your ovaries run out of eggs and hence stop being active and producing hormones (which are chemical messengers) oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone. This can happen gradually or more abruptly following surgery or specific treatment (surgical menopause). The average age for menopause is 51 in the UK but we know for certain ethnic groups it can be 2-6 years earlier.
Menopause before the age of 45 is known as an early menopause, while menopause before the age of 40 is known as premature ovarian insufficiency (POI). POI is a lot more common than most people think: it affects about 1 in 100 women under the age of 40, and 1 in 1,000 women under 30. Short term, the symptoms can affect you day to day but long term, the hormone loss can increase the risk of bone, heart and brain disease. This is why increasing awareness is so important.
Menopause is medically defined as one year since your last menstrual cycle. In the run-up to this, we have a stage called perimenopause. This is when symptoms start to appear, and your cycle may become more irregular. We now recognise the ‘perimenopause’ stage to impact your physical and mental health profoundly and this is why seeking help before your periods completely stop is beneficial to you.
Oestrogen and progesterone do not only regulate your menstrual cycle, but also travel around your whole body allowing all your cells and systems to function at best. This could be from brain fog to dry skin, to low mood to joint pains. We now recognise over 40 symptoms related to menopause and at one stage you can have few or many and they can change over time.
Common symptoms include:
- Night sweats and hot flushes
- Poor sleep
- Low sex drive
- Dry, itchy skin and thinning hair
- Joint and muscle pain
- Tinnitus
- Pins and needles
- Heart palpitations
- Brain fog and memory problems
- Low mood and anxiety
- Weight change especially in the mid riff
- Headaches, and more regular or intense migraines
- Vaginal dryness and soreness
- Recurrent UTIs and urinary incontinence
- Fatigue and insomnia
- Oral symptoms like dry mouth, gum disease and even tooth loss
The menopause is an individual journey, heavily influenced by what other things maybe going on in life and everyone is unique. This is why awareness is so crucial and care needs to be holistic and individualised.
There is a wealth of information on hormonal change at the moment and I often meet women who feel overwhelmed with it all and cannot see how to best help themselves. My advice is to share the responsibility with your health professional and arm yourself with a symptom tracker, your hormonal and family history and get individualised care that is best tailored to you.
