Menopause: Your Symptoms and Choices

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Managing Your Menopause

Menopause does not have to take over your life! Celebrate and choose to learn as much as you can, consider your choices for lifestyle changes, discover remedies for your symptoms (traditional or alternative), let other women know what has worked for you, and because symptoms are not only related to menopause, make certain to talk with your physician about what you are experiencing.

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What is Menopause? 

A Wikipedia article

Menopause: Your Symptoms and Choices

32 Common Symptoms of Menopause

Menopause is the permanent shutting down of the female reproductive system, a considerable length of time before the end of the lifespan. Menopause occurs in a variety of animals, as well as humans. It is usually a natural process.

The word was first applied to humans, and because of this it literally means the cessation of monthly cycles or menstrual cycles, from the Greek roots meno (month) and pausis (a halt). However, the word is not only applied to humans, and menopause is the permanent stopping of female reproductive cycles of various lengths and kinds; menopause is indeed present in a number of mammal species other than humans.

In adult human females who still have a uterus, and who are not pregnant or lactating, postmenopause is identified by a permanent (at least one year's) absence of monthly periods or menstruation. In women without a uterus, menopause or postmenopause is identified by a very high FSH level.

In human females, menopause usually happens more or less in midlife, signaling the end of the fertile phase of a woman's life. Menopause is perhaps most easily understood as the opposite process to menarche, the start of the monthly periods. However, menopause in women cannot satisfactorily be defined simply as the permanent "stopping of the monthly periods", because in reality what is happening to the uterus is quite secondary to the process; it is what is happening to the ovaries that is the crucial factor.

read the rest of the Wikipedia article

Moment #1 

Irritability and Emotional Changes

Menopause: Your Symptoms and Choices



Why is it that many of us can maintain at work and around friends, yet when we get home our irritability and emotions flare and all hell breaks loose? Crazy as it seems and sounds, this scenario occurs often enough that there are studies, chapters in books, and forums dedicated to this discussion.


What We Do Creates a Difference 

Please add your thoughts and or vote on the entries. Thanks for participating ^:^

Make a conscious choice to realize how you are feeling; state or post an appropriate warning!

2 points

It is important to remember to Breathe...especially during stressful moments!

1 point

Ask for forgiveness when you know you've crossed the line!

1 point

Commit yourself to finding relief for your symptoms.

1 point

The Benefits of Yoga 

Menopause: Your Symptoms and ChoicesYoga and the Wisdom of Menopause

YOGA:
  • improves strength, flexibility, coordination and range of motion
  • when practiced regularly, lessens the severity of menopausal symptoms
  • improves circulation, enhances cardiovascular health, and benefits, digestive, nervous and respiratory system
  • poses are designed to tone and exercise the muscles of the body to eliminate fat

Source: womans-health.net article

Moment #2 

Poor Sleeping Patterns

Menopause: Your Symptoms and Choices

For various reasons, menopausal women can often develop calcium deficiencies. Because calcium acts as a sedative on the human body, this deficiency can lead to restlessness, an inability to fall to sleep, as well as poor sleeping patterns throughout the night. Naturally, this can be extremely frustrating and tiring for women. Not surprising, a lack of quality sleep can also compound other problems such as feeling emotional or experiencing moodiness. The answer for many women is a calcium supplement, as well as engaging in gentle relaxation exercises to help them better sleep.

Source: Menopausetime.com article

Menopause: Your Symptoms and Choices

ARTICLES:
Menopause and Sleep

Insomnia: reset your inner clock and get back to sleep

Sleep Disturbances: Menopause and Melatonin

Moment #3 

Headaches and Dizziness

Menopause: Your Symptoms and Choices

There are many things that you can do to reduce the likelihood of headaches and migraine. Here are a few suggestions:
  • Keep a 'headache diary' to help you to identify the food and beverage triggers which may underlie your headaches
  • Regular exercise improves systemic functioning and boosts circulation, leading to increased oxygen supply to the brain
  • Avoid fatty foods and food containing MSG (Monosodium glutimate); Eat lots of fresh fruit and vegetables
  • Don't skip meals! Headaches are often caused by low blood sugar levels.
  • Drink at least 8 glasses of water a day to prevent headaches caused by dehydration.
  • Speak about your feelings and learn not to take on too much
  • Have regular breaks and walk around for a few minutes every hour if your job involves sitting at a computer all day.

Herbal Choices 

Menopause: Your Symptoms and Choices

Natural herbal remedies and treatment for Anxiety, Menopause, and more. Visit Native Remedies For the highest quality herbal remedies professionally formulated in therapeutic dosages by a leading clinical psychologist.

Herb List on HerbMed.org

Moment #4 

Palpitations and Hot Flashes

Menopause: Your Symptoms and Choices

Most women over 50 have a hot-flash story to tell.
So begins Newsweek writers Barbara Kantrowitz and Pat Wingert's new book Is It Hot in Here? Or Is It Me? (Workman Publishing Company, 2006).


--->The authors tell the story of a 40-something friend who made a stop at a convenience store to pick up a drink for her teenage son. When she went to the counter to pay, she became dizzy, nauseated and felt an intense heat all over her body. She sat down in the car, hoping the sensation would pass, but it didn't. Panicked, she told her son to call 911. She thought she was having a heart attack.

Just as she heard the sirens of the ambulance, her dizziness and nausea went away and that heat was replaced by sweat. Then it hit her -- she was having her first hot flash. She later told friends that after an awkward explanation to the emergency medical technicians, she knew the only thing she was dying of was embarrassment.<---

Source: Thirdage.com news articles

Is it Hot in Here? Or is it me? The Complete Guide to Menopause

Amazon Price: $12.21 (as of 12/10/2009)Buy Now

Publishers Weekly says:
An attractive, user-friendly format with sidebars, charts, illustrations and Q&A's guides readers through hundreds of pages of material.

Customer Review:
I especially liked that fact that the authors emphasize the positive side of menopause saying it is not an ending, but a beginning and the fact that menopause is a natural process not a disease.

Talk To Your Doctor About These Tests 

Menopause: Your Symptoms and Choices

- FSH (follicle stimulating hormone)...the results will confirm if you are in menopause.

- TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone)...an additional hormone test, especially important if your family has a history.

- CMP (complete metobolic panel)...gives you insight to glucose, liver function, + more

- Lipid panel...this is your cholesterol, HDL (good), LDL (bad), ratio, etc.

On The Internet 

Butterfly

Know Menopause: Even though this site is sponsored by Wyeth (pharmaceutical companies and advise usually don't mix), I found the information to be very comprehensive and helpful. Really appreciated The Action Plan segment because I forgot to ask my doctor a bunch of things at my last visit, now I won't.

Menopause Goddess Blog: A great resource and respite. Well worth bookmarking to make sure you go back to read from time to time!

ProjectAWARE, a website by women, for women... offering objective and comprehensive health information, especially related to menopause, perimenopause, and postmenopause.

Menopause Metamorphosis: Susun Weed offers information that feeds your body, mind, and spirit. She even has a hotline so you can call her with a personal health issue.

My Menopause Series 

Alternative vs Traditional Medicine 

Menopause: Your Symptoms and Choices

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This work by clouda9 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.