SureFire Women Health

Have you ever wondered what are the symptoms of menopause?

Menopause is a natural stage of life that a woman has to go through. Most women go through this period in their lives in their early or mid-forties. However, most women experience a number of symptoms that can be of great concern. To help you deal with this new and sometimes quite difficult stage in your life you must first learn to identify these symptoms.

Experiencing irregular or missed periods is one of the first signs that indicate to a woman that she has started to go through menopause.

At the onset of menopause, the hormones, estrogen and progesterone which are stimulated by the ovaries begin to drastically decrease. Because the ovaries no longer releases the egg, a woman will notice a change in her monthly menstrual cycle. After a woman has started to experience her monthly menstrual cycle the only things that would disrupt it would be diseases, other problems with the ovaries or pregnancy. But once a woman starts with her menopause she will experience disruptions with her monthly menstrual cycle.

Hot flashes is another common symptom of menopause and is experienced in one way or another by more than seventy five percent of women going through menopause.

This would cause a woman to feel flush. From one moment to the next she would feel an extreme change in temperature even though the temperature of the room she is in remains the same. A woman may experience other symptoms along with the hot flashes, such as dizziness, heart palpitations or faintness.

All women do not experience hot flashes to the same degree but hot flashes can last up to ten minutes. Some women can experience the hot flashes rather mildly and so it does not affect them very much. Because of the extreme hormone fluctuations during menopause, the hypothalamus, a part of the brain, cannot properly regulate a woman’s body temperature. This is what causes a woman to experience hot flashes. Stress and a poor diet can also affect the whole process negatively.

Hot flashes can last for five to six years but some women can have them even before and after menopause.

Hot flashes can contribute to another common symptom of menopause, which is insomnia.

A woman can experience hot flashes during the day and at night, so many times a woman would wake up at night soaked with her sweat. She often has to get up to change her clothes and her sheets so that she can be comfortable. If she is a light sleeper, and she usually is after she has had her children, she might find it very difficult to fall asleep again. Although these night sweats can affect a woman’s sleeping habits they are not the only reason for her sleeping poorly.

Hormone levels in a woman’s blood can also affect the quality of her sleep, so improving these hormone levels can also improve the quality of her sleep.

If a woman is able to identify the common symptoms of menopause then she will be better able to cope with them and so be able to live a healthier life. Make sure that you consult with your doctor about any of these symptoms that you are experiencing so that it does not cause you any serious problems.

So now you know what are the symptoms of menopause.

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