The time comes, and every woman is faced with manifestations of menopausal changes in the body. This stage signals that the body is completing its reproductive function. With the onset of menopause, the endocrine system reduces the production of “female” hormones, which can affect the well-being and appearance of a woman. Let’s tell you what a woman faces during menopause, at what age she comes, and whether the fair sex can get pregnant at such a time.
In general, menopause is not considered a disease, it is a physiological condition. But unpleasant moments are still present: dry skin, itching, palpitations, hypertension, hot flashes, weight gain, changes in the functioning of the reproductive system, insomnia, increased sweating.
Facts about menopause
1. Have to play sports in a new way
When the body undergoes changes in the form of menopause, the hormonal background also changes radically. In this case, the body also changes – therefore, the system of habitual training will need to be revised. To keep yourself in shape, do more exercises with dumbbells. This will not only help slim down your waistline, keep your cardiovascular system in good shape, but also strengthen bone mass, which becomes more and more fragile in women as they age.
2. Your sexuality will not wane.
During the onset of menopause, women complain of dryness in the vagina and the lack of their own lubrication, because the level of estrogen drops sharply. This, of course, cannot please, because sex can become painful. But if a woman leads an active sex life at this age, then the body stimulates the production of vaginal lubrication to protect the vagina. However, if you have sex regularly and experience discomfort and pain, it is best to see a doctor to prescribe an additional dose of estrogen (in the form of suppositories or ointments) to resolve this problem.
3. You will become more susceptible to sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)
During menopause, many women stop using any means of protection, believing that they can no longer become pregnant. But this can be a fatal mistake if both you and your partner are not in a serious relationship. The fact is that susceptibility to sexually transmitted diseases does not end during this period, but increases, and the likelihood of becoming infected if you had unprotected sex is high. At any age, a woman should not forget about safe sex.
4. Your hair will become thinner
The hairline on the head and on the body will noticeably thin out. This is because your body is now producing extra androgen, a hormone that plays an important role in male reproductive activity. You can improve the condition of your hair and reduce hair loss by taking menopausal hormone therapy, vitamin complexes and leading a healthy lifestyle.
5. You may have trouble sleeping
During this period, you should go to bed earlier. Many women during menopause suffered from sleep disorders. This typical side effect is often due to night sweats in women. Night sweats are caused by simple flushes, and because the sweat disturbs and wakes you up, it makes you feel sluggish the next morning.
Prevent these symptoms from developing: go to bed before 23 p.m. so that you have enough time for quality sleep, even if nighttime hot flashes wake you up, sleep longer if your sleep is interrupted at night.
6. You may not experience any side effects.
One third of women experience no menopausal symptoms at all. Many women literally fly through this period. The only thing women notice is that their periods have stopped.
If you are still faced with pain, feeling unwell, then in this case you should definitely visit a gynecologist to find out with what means you can improve your condition and quality of life.
Popular questions and answers
At what age does menopause occur?
The long process of menopause can be divided into three stages:
Perimenopause
It mostly starts at the age of 45, although this is very individual. It happens that its first signs may appear in women at the age of 38-40. And sometimes women do not feel any changes until almost the 50th birthday. The ovaries are still working, but the periods become irregular and the intervals between them increase. During this period, a woman may first feel hot flashes, some note a decrease in libido, bouts of blues and headaches.
Menopause
The average age for a woman to go through menopause is 50-55 years old. The ovaries stop working, menstruation stops, although they can still come at a very long interval. Changes caused by a lack of estrogen begin to manifest themselves especially clearly. During this period, the bones become brittle, the development of cardiovascular diseases and even diabetes is possible.
Postmenopause
This term refers to the period from the last menstruation to the end of life. During postmenopause, the hot flashes that plagued menopause usually disappear, but symptoms such as vaginal dryness and involuntary urination appear due to atrophic changes in the mucosa; the tone of the muscles of the perineum decreases, which leads to the prolapse of the uterus; bone density decreases and they become brittle, as well as weight gain.
What is an early menopause?
In the female body, the level of hormones such as estrogen and progesterone, which are produced in the ovaries, rapidly begins to decrease.
Estrogen is necessary not only for the maturation of the next egg, but also to preserve the youth of the whole organism. When the ovaries no longer secrete it, ovulation becomes impossible, the corpus luteum responsible for progesterone cannot be formed, the cycle is interrupted, and the woman begins a series of unpleasant changes in the body. That is, the supply of eggs in the ovaries is simply exhausted.
Early menopause does not come on abruptly, so you should pay attention to cycle changes that repeat two or three times in a row or episodically: delay, duration and quality of bleeding, pain, everything that differs from your norm.
Can you get pregnant during menopause?
Menopause is a physiological state that is characterized by the transition of the reproductive system to a non-reproductive state, so pregnancy cannot occur. Cases of early and premature menopause should be discussed individually.