Features age 45+: menopause

This is the moment every woman expects, usually with excitement, and sometimes with fear, because many menopause is directly associated with the advancing age. But you can also look at it from the other side, because all the experiences and foolishness of youth were left behind, there is no need to look for oneself in the work, life is already established and arranged, children have long grown up - in a word - freedom! You can finally find time for yourself, realize dreams that have not yet been realized, begin to travel fully, spend more time with your second half. And to experience because of the consequences of menopause is not necessary: ​​modern medicine provides a lot of opportunities for their prevention and elimination.
Stages of menopause
Do not take the climax as a disease, because this is a completely normal natural process, natural for every woman. In Greek, menopause means "ladder", and here are its "steps":

Premenopause: the cycle is irregular, there is a problem: when there are enough estrogens, and gestagen - in short supply. And for the consistency of the cycle, the balance of these hormones should be at a certain level.

Menopause. It can only be determined after the fact. This is the period when menstruation does not go for a year (this means that the level of sex hormones in the body has fallen as much as possible).

Postmenopause - occurs one year after the last menstruation. This period of menopause can be calculated from the results of the tests, namely, when the hormone gonadotropin decreases, and also when the estradiol is below 30 pg / ml. You can also check the maturation of follicles by means of a special medical test AMN - on the anti-Muller hormone.

There are certain medical criteria regarding the onset of menopause: if menopause occurred before the age of 40 - the premature climax, in 40-44 - early, from 45 to 52 years - this is the norm, after 53 years - late.

The body's response to menopause
The reaction of the woman's body to the inevitable age-related changes can be most unpredictable: someone really does not care for the climax - well-being can be excellent and a woman can even breathe with peace of mind that the monthly "holidays" are over. There are statistics that every 14 women are among these lucky ones. And someone is experiencing the "autumn" in full: frequent hot flashes, severe headaches, fatigue, increased sweating, excruciating insomnia, and some even develop a real depression ... About 10% of women feel so bad that they need even release from work (this is the so-called pathological menopause).

The main reason for all sorts of "autumn" troubles of a woman is a change in the hormonal background. After all, female hormones regulate not only the reproductive system, but also many other important organs and tissues. For example, they have an effect on the skin and mucous membranes, in addition, sex hormones directly affect the nervous system of a woman, so during menopause, irritability and nervousness may appear. In addition, a deficiency of female sex hormones can provoke osteoporosis (bone density decreases) and cardiovascular diseases (accumulating harmful lipids, clogging the walls of blood vessels).

Treatment of the effects of menopause
If you apply to different specialists with different symptoms - many appointments can not be avoided (and some drugs are antagonists to each other, which complicates the situation). The most progressive solution for the time of change is hormone replacement therapy (HRT), which is designed to replace the estrogen hormone that is lacking in the female body. The practice of HRT in countries of Western Europe and the United States has a solid history and equally impressive success. Almost every second woman experiencing menopause receives the appointment of HRT. The situation in our country is somewhat different - the popular "dislike" for any hormonal treatment affects. However, properly organized HRT not only eliminates all the annoying trifles of the climacteric period, but also significantly reduces the risk of developing certain diseases in old age, such as coronary heart disease or osteoporosis, and also prevents rapid aging of the skin, restoring the missing collagen fibers in the cells, and according to some studies HRT can even increase life expectancy to 10 years. But a large set of excess weight, which many of our women are afraid of, hormone therapy does not help.

And yet HRT is not a panacea, it also has contraindications:

• oncological diseases (even in family history);
• previously suffered heart attack;
• thrombophlebitis;
• severe liver damage.

Determine if hormone therapy is acceptable for you, and only a specialist can determine the appropriate remedy (according to the results of the tests).

An alternative to hormones is homeopathic medications that can be used with not too severe consequences of menopause, as well as physical exercises, a balanced diet rich in calcium and natural analogues of female sex hormones (for example, soya).

Some myths about menopause

• You can stop using contraceptives as soon as menstruation has stopped. Of course, the older a woman, the less chance she will get pregnant, because with age the childbearing function gradually fades into nothing, but it is not completely excluded. Protection can only be abandoned during the postmenopausal period, which occurs 12 months after the last menstrual period.
• Climax can be delayed if you give birth closer to 40 years. We hasten to disprove you, late birth does not guarantee a late climax. However, caring for the baby can push all other pressing problems to the background, and it is possible that the climax will pass almost imperceptibly.
• Menopause is a problem that concerns exclusively women. Not certainly in that way. With age, hormonal changes in the body occur in both sexes. True, in men, such a restructuring of the body occurs later and proceeds not so noticeably.