July 04 - 2010 All About Women Health - Menopause

The Forms of Menopause

By Michael Russell

Recommended Reading
Menopause A To Z -The Definitive Guide.
Explore The Latest Cutting Edge Information
About Modern Menopause Symptoms & Treatments.

Why all these sudden changes in your mood? Why have you become so irritable and often wake up in the middle of the night feeling hot and uncomfortable? These and many more other questions might be playing in your mind and maybe even those around you. What's behind all these changes in you? You might be even feeling fatigued and easily get tired. Women between the ages 42 and 56 go through a normal phase in their lives we all come to know as menopause. Menopause is a normal physiologic change that every woman undergoes in her life. Menopause means a lot of major changes in a woman's life. Every woman faces these changes differently. This is not an illness or a disease that should be dreaded. Some women welcome menopause with open arms. They embrace menopause as a new life; a new found independence. They look at menopause as a freeing time of their lives where the arduous period of childbearing is over. The absence of menstrual periods brings them more independence to do the things they always want to do without the hassles of monthly menstruation. Other women, on the other hand, view menopause as the declining phase of their self worth. They look at their incapacity to produce a child as a negative impact to their importance as a woman and as a mother.

Menopause is referred to as the slow decline and the eventual cessation of menstruation, including the physiologic mechanism that goes along with it. Menopause comes as a complicated phase in a woman's life, accompanied with various physiological and psychosocial changes. The various changes that a woman experiences during menopause are caused by the declining ovarian function.

There are three forms of menopause. These are physiologic menopause, pathologic menopause and artificial menopause. Physiologic menopause occurs when the functions of the ovary normally decline because of aging. Physiologic menopause usually starts to occur in women between the ages 40 and 50. As a result of this normal change, a woman will have irregular or infrequent ovulation with decreased menstrual function. Eventually, menstruation will cease. Menstruation is usually observed to cease between the ages 45 and 55.

Pathologic menopause, or premature menopause, on the other hand is referred to as the sudden termination of menstruation not due to aging and which occurs before a woman reaches 40. Studies show that about 5% of all women in the United States experience premature menopause without known or apparent reason. However, premature menopause may be caused by some diseases. These diseases may include severe infections in the reproductive tract. Tumors in the reproductive tract may also cause pathologic menopause. Tumors in the reproductive tract may seriously harm the ovary and weaken and damage its normal function. Aside from diseases and tumors, such factors like malnutrition, extreme emotional stress, radiation therapy or too much exposure to radiation and debilitation can also cause pathologic or premature menopause. Furthermore, impairment of the ovarian blood supply can also cause premature menopause. Such condition is usually created when a woman undergoes surgical procedure, which involves the ovary.

Finally, artificial menopause occurs when there is the cessation of the ovarian function. This form of menopause often occurs following radiation therapy or surgical procedures. Whatever form of menopause a woman experiences, it is important that she be able to pass through this phase with the least complications possible and with the help and understanding of the people around her.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Menopause

Recommended Reading
Menopause A To Z -The Definitive Guide.
Explore The Latest Cutting Edge Information
About Modern Menopause Symptoms & Treatments.