Women that have already gone through this period, regard it often as the beginning of a new life. Younger women that don't have such experience, bother in their turn, how they will feel in their fifties, because they compare menopause with ageing.



Above all menopause signifies the end of a reproductive period in woman's life. Biological clock tics more and more quietly for these younger women and it scares them. Menopause is a fertility loss and it's hard for them to go through it, as such things as youth, beauty and fertility are so valued in our society. The loss of reproduction ability is like the loss of choice.

Women worry also about their physical attraction during menopause. They get upset thinking that their breasts will grow flabby, their faces will wreath, and their figures won't be slender anymore. They fear that men will set them aside, paying attention to younger women. And it's not the matter of woman being physically old, but the matter of society taking them for being physically old.

Menopause is generally correlated with the last menstruation in woman's life. Formally it begins when a woman lives a year having no periods. The average age of American women entering menopause is about 51, though it can happen earlier. For example about 1% of women enter it when they are about 40.

Women that undergo ovaries ablation pass on to menopause in one day. As a rule, they often turn out to be psychologically unprepared for menopausal phase in their life. Frequently early menopause victimizes women after chemotherapy.

When everything runs its natural course, the changes in the organism proceed gradually. The last period of woman's life is generally called climacteric. Usually it begins some years before the last menstruation. It resides such changes as an attack-like sensation of heat, abundant night sweat, troubled sleep, vaginal dryness, skin changes, hair loss, hot flashes, rapid mood changes, depression and weight gain.

All these alterations, just like stopping of periods are caused by a decreasing level of estrogen, one of the hormones produced by ovaries. The ovaries grow older and quit generating ovules and producing estrogen.

What dangers does menopause represent to a woman? Estrogen is necessary for solidity of bones, that's why decrease of estrogen level can result in osteoporosis development. This decease makes bones fragile and brittle. Statistics say that osteoporosis stands for 1,5 million breaks a year. One third of women after 65 has a spine injury, after 90 ? hip joint break (with men it's a one case of six). As a whole from 25 to 44% breaks among menopausal women are caused by osteoporosis.

Moreover, estrogen is a natural protector from heart diseases and decreased estrogen level, consequently, heightens the risk of them. Probability of heart attack rises sharply among menopausal women after 65.