Menopause Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Treatment on MedicineNet.com

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Menopause

Medical Author: Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD
Medical Editor: William C. Shiel Jr., MD, FACP, FACR

Featured menopause patient discussions on experience with approaching menopause

"Painful heavy breasts, lack of libido, extreme irritability, hot flashes, night sweats huge mood swings. It's been awful and I've only just started."

"The symptoms I am experiencing include life-sucking, ear-burning, disgusting, perspiration-laden hot flashes, day and night; heightened emotions -- I've never been an emotional, teary woman, but I feel frequently on the verge of tears; and I've ballooned up 20 pounds in two months. I'm still having occasional periods, and I was told at age 35 that I was premenopausal. I'm now 45; I started my period at age 12."

"I'm 44 and still have periods although they are getting heavier and less time in between. I start feeling bloated, emotional and angry, even aggressive about 10 days before I start to bleed. I have night sweats and bouts of depression, and I have been tested and my general practitioner. He has said everything is normal!"

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Patient Discussions are not a substitute for professional medical advice, or treatment.
See the disclaimer at the bottom of the comments page.

What is menopause?

Menopause is the absence of menstrual periods for 12 months. The menopausal transition starts with varying menstrual cycle length and ends with the final menstrual period. Perimenopause means "the time around menopause" and is often used to refer to the menopausal transitional period. It is not officially a medical term, but is sometimes used to explain certain aspects of the menopause transition in lay terms. Postmenopause is the entire period of time that comes after the last menstrual period.

Menopause is the time in a woman's life when the function of the ovaries ceases. The ovary, or female gonad, is one of a pair of reproductive glands in women. They are located in the pelvis, one on each side of the uterus. Each ovary is about the size and shape of an almond. The ovaries produce eggs (ova) and female hormones such as estrogen. During each monthly menstrual cycle, an egg is released from one ovary. The egg travels from the ovary through a Fallopian tube to the uterus.

The ovaries are the main source of female hormones, which control the development of female body characteristics such as the breasts, body shape, and body hair. The hormones also regulate the menstrual cycle and pregnancy. Estrogens also protect the bone. Therefore, a woman can develop osteoporosis (thinning of bone) later in life when her ovaries do not produce adequate estrogen.

Perimenopause is different for each woman. Scientists are still trying to identify all the factors that initiate and influence this transition period.

At what age does a woman typically reach menopause?

The average age of menopause is 51 years old. But there is no way to predict when an individual woman will enter menopause. The age at which a woman starts having menstrual periods is also not related to the age of menopause onset. Most women reach menopause between the ages of 45 and 55, but menopause may occur as earlier as the 30s or 40s or may not occur until a woman reaches her 60s. As a rough "rule of thumb," women tend to undergo menopause at an age similar to that of their mothers.

Perimenopause, often accompanied by irregularities in the menstrual cycle along with the typical symptoms of early menopause, can begin up to 10 years prior to the last menstrual period.