The Facts: What Is Menopause Anyway?
The simple answer is this: Menopause is when your period finally stops. because your periods may become less regular and occur at greater as you approach menopause, you don't know you've gone through menopause until twelve months have passed since your last period.
Count the Months
According to the Council of Affiliated Menopause Societies (CAMS), menopause is “The permanent end of menstruation. Menopause disease but a natural event in a woman's life that results from a decrease in the ovarian production of sex hormones — estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. Menopause is confirmed when a woman has not a menstrual period for twelve consecutive months.” By the time know you've experienced natural menopause, you're already “
How Menopause Affects You
Menopause doesn't make a grand entrance — no fanfare, no fireworks. Menopause becomes a reality for most women through a series of physical, mental, and emotional changes — some subtle, some more dramatic — that tend to emerge, evolve, intensify, and fade over a period of weeks, months, and years. What most women refer to as “menopause,” with symptoms such as hot flashes, memory problems, and mood swings, is actually the period leading up to menopause, called perimenopause. The changes are unique to each individual, so women don't have a single “menopause profile” to compare themselves to. Menopause can have many faces, and there's no one best way to prepare for or experience it. And it's not as bad as you may think!
Alert
To avoid unnecessary worry and discomfort about menopause, don't deny the obvious. Learn all you can about what's happening to your body, and then take the necessary next steps to begin making your passage through menopause as painless and productive as you possibly can. You've made a great start by picking up this book!
