Troublesome symptoms of varying severity that affect most women at least to some extent around the time of the menopause (about the age of 50 in most women today). Throughout a woman’s reproductive life she produces female sex hormones, but from the menopause onwards these are produced in reduced amounts. The first sign of the onset of the menopause is usually irregular periods. Although a woman’s female sex-hormone levels may fall to below those found in most men, her male sex-hormone level can remain high and could account for the facial hairiness seen in some women at this time.
The most common symptoms around the menopause are hot flushes, vaginal dryness, pain on intercourse, headaches, night sweats, weight gain, light-headedness, muscle and joint aches and pains, dry skin, depression, excitability and a loss of confidence. There are, of course, many others too. The vast majority of these signs and symptoms can be reversed by giving female sex hormones, so clearly they are hormone-linked. However, such replacement therapy has fallen under a cloud since research has found an increased level of breast cancers in women taking oestrogens in this way. It also increases the risk of gall-stones and high blood pressure.
Once over the age of 50 or so ischemic heart disease (which leads to heart attacks) becomes more common in women than before and a few women lose their pubic hair and armpit hair and have degeneration of their vulva and vagina. Women also start to lose calcium from their bones and are more liable to fractures when they fall than are men. Some women welcome the onset of the menopause because it means they can now enjoy sex without worrying about contraception, but others mourn the passing of their fertile years and are miserable.
The menopause also often coincides with the departure of children from the home and the woman’s husband may be at the stage of life in which he is becoming interested in younger women, perhaps to sow the oats he never did when he was young. This is now the second peak time for divorces (the first is during the first five years of marriage).
Having said this, the menopause is used somewhat as a catch-all and any problems a woman encounters at around this time of life tend to be attributed to it-often erroneously. About 10-20 per cent of women suffer no symptoms at all at the menopause.
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