The average age for women to have their last period is about 50. But it's normal for menopause to occur any time from age 41 to 59. A woman often goes through menopause at about the same age as her mother.Menopause is a gradual process that can take several years. You're not really through menopause until you haven't had a period for 12 months
Women who have both ovaries removed will go through "surgical menopause" at the time of their surgery. If the uterus is taken out but the ovaries are left, a woman won't have periods but she will only go through menopause when her ovaries stop making estrogen.Estrogen affects many parts of the body, including the blood vessels, heart, bone, breasts, uterus, urinary system, skin, and brain. Loss of estrogen is believed to be the cause of many of the symptoms associated with menopause. At the time of menopause, the ovaries also decrease their production of testosterone—a hormone involved in the libido, or sexual drive.
Menopause affects every woman differently. Your only symptom may be your period stopping. You may have other symptoms, too. Many symptoms at this time of life are because of you getting older. But some are due to menopause. Hot flashes -- a side effect of menopause -- cause a woman to feel hot and flushed, notably in the face, neck and chest. Symptoms also may include sweating, chills and a rapid heartbeat and may typically last from two to thirty minutes on each occasion for older women. The event may be repeated a few times each week or up to a dozen times a day, with the frequency reducing over time. Excessive flushing can lead to rosacea.
Minor hot flashes may be cooled with simple home remedies, including a cold glass of water and a fan. More severe hot flashes may require therapies prescribed by your doctor.According to some studies, hot flashes occur in as many as 75% of perimenopausal women. Hot flashes can occur at any time — in the middle of the night or in the middle of the produce aisle at the grocery store. And they're common.
If your hot flashes are mild — you have just a few a day and they don't interfere with your normal activities — you may be able to manage them with lifestyle adjustments. For some women, lifestyle changes are enough to bring hot flashes under control. For others, medicines or dietary supplements seem to help.
Although the exact triggers for hot flashes are not completely understood, experts do know that they are a result of a decrease in the female hormone estrogen during menopause. It's believed that estrogen production affects the part of the brain that controls the body's temperature. The body's "thermostat" prevents us from overheating or freezing in various environments.
To control hot flashes in the past, women used estrogen replacement therapy during this natural stage of menopause. However, recent concerns about the safety of estrogen use have left many women looking for alternatives.
Elestrin, a new estrogen gel that's absorbed through the skin, relieves menopausal symptoms while keeping the hormone dose to a minimum, researchers report.
A number of authorities, Dr. Michael C. Snabes told Reuters Health, have "provided guidelines for physicians to prescribe the lowest possible dose of estrogen to treat menopausal symptoms."
The Elestrin study, he said, "accomplished this with a dose of estradiol that is 50 percent lower than the next lowest dose of estradiol approved for menopausal symptoms." Estradiol is one of the estrogenic hormones produced in the ovaries.
Snabes -- who is with BioSante Pharmaceutics, Inc., the maker of Elestrin -- and colleagues conducted a study involving 484 post-menopausal women who suffered at least 60 hot flashes per week, and report the results in the medical journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.
In random fashion, the participants were given various doses of the estradiol gel or an inactive 'placebo' gel, which they applied daily to a small area of the upper arm for 12 weeks.
After 3 to 5 weeks, the active gel reduced the rate of moderate-to-severe hot flashes by at least seven flashes per day, and significantly reduced the severity of the flashes.
The lowest dose of gel significantly improved most bothersome menopause-related symptoms, and it produced the fewest side effects.
In an accompanying editorial, Dr. Cheryl B. Iglesia of Washington Hospital Center, Washington, DC points out that "longer term follow-up is needed" to assess the effect of the estrogen gel on the risk of heart disease, breast cancer and stroke.
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