The Early Signs Of Menopause Symptoms

The Early Signs Of Menopause Symptoms

Menopause and the symptoms of menopause are a natural part of the process of living. The symptoms of menopause that accompany this process are physiological changes that happen to every woman in varying degrees.

Menopause is the natural and normal body process of a woman, which may result in the changing or halting of her monthly menstrual cycles. This is mostly because of the passing years of age. Menopause is often referred to as "the big change" in a woman's life.

Early signs of menopause are clues to the onset of the symptoms of menopause in a relatively early time. The menopausal state is usually during a woman's late 40's to early 50's. Anything earlier than that is thought to be an early menopause scenario.

Some of the more common early signs of menopause, or premenopause symptoms and perimenopause symptoms, may include:

Changes in monthly cycle
Mood swings, irritability
Headaches
Hot flashes/flushes
Chronic fatigue
Depression
Aches and pains, cramps
Changes in body hair
Yeast Infections
Increase in PMS
Changes in sleep pattern
Loss of interest in love life
Water retention
Night sweats
Less vaginal lubrication
Fluctuations in blood sugar

The Reasons Behind These Symptoms of Menopause

Given below are the top ten menopause symptoms, and the biological reasons behind them.

Early Signs of Menopause # 1

Changes in Monthly Cycle

Our monthly cycles are determined by our ovaries. Hormones allow us to produce an egg via ovulation. The imbalance of hormones our bodies produce because of menopause leads to our monthly cycles getting delayed or coming early. This can happen to women even before menopause as a result of poor diet and nutrition.

Early Signs of Menopause #2

Changes in PMS and Cramps

PMS happens to any woman, even before menopuase. During menopause, however, it either increases in frequency or intensity. PMS is one of the most common forms of hormonal imbalance, and as a woman's hormonal balance gets further strained by menopause, PMS intensifies. Women who suffer from PMS early in life before menopause will most likely experience more telling effects as they enter menopause.

Early Signs of Menopause #3

Mood swings and depression

It's not "all in the mind". Sceintific studies have shown that people's hormones affect their moods. Certain hormones make people more passive, others help towards relaxation, while others make a person more active and energetic. The imbalance of hormones caused by menopause can also affect the ones which alter a person's emotional state, causing depression, mood swings, or aggressive behavior.

Early Signs of Menopause #4

Hot Flashes

It is a common misnomer that lack of estrogen during menopause causes hot flashes. This is simply not true. If it were, then hot flashes should persist from the onset of menopause until the end of a woman's days. The real reason behind hot flashes is because our bodies are dealing with the hormonal imbalances by boosting our metabolism. Another reason is because our adrenal glands occassionally get "wrong" signals due to the imbalances and push out a lot of extra energy that we simply don't need.

Early Signs of Menopause #5

Chronic Fatigue, aches and pains

These symptoms generally result as an offshoot from the other symptoms. Lack of sleep and the depression which leads to it will result in low energy. Also, some women in the later parts of their years try to go for crash diets to stay slim and young looking. Unfortunately, crash diets lead to a lack on nutrition, which drops your energy levels drastically.

Early Signs of Menopause #6

Strange Hair Growth

Estrogen and testosterone are both present and balanced in our bodies. Unfortunately, testosterone is what determines hair growth. The sudden drop in estrogen during menopause sometimes causes the testosterone to take off on skewed tangents, either causing hair growth in unwanted areas or sometimes causing hair loss.

Early Signs of Menopause #7

Insomnia or Sleep Pattern Modification

The usual cause of lack of sleep is night sweats, which are caused alongside hot flashes. Also, the mood swings and depression that accompanies hormonal imbalance make us stay up all night worrying or hyper and jumpy. Lastly, the natural worrying that accompanies reaching middle age can also keep us up all night staring at the ceiling.

Early Signs of Menopause #8

Water Retention

Our bodies' metabolisms are heavily influenced by our hormones. The imbalances in menopause sometimes manifests as a drastic lowering of the metabolic indicators that control the rate at which our bodies' cells retain water and burn off excess fat. This leads to water retention and weight gain.

Early Signs of Menopause #9

Less Vaginal Lubrication

The drop in our estrogen levels during menopause cause a thinning and drying out of the vaginal walls, which leads to less lubrication. This makes intercourse painful, and can lead to a decline in sexual activity. However, sometimes the cause can also be something as simple as lack of water, and can be addressed by boosting one's water intake.

Early Signs of Menopause #10

Loss of interest in Love Life

This generally stems from a lack of estrogen. Hormones are what fuel the drive for sexual intercourse, and in some women this imbalance manifests as a lack of desire for intercourse. On a psychological level, the depression that usually accompanies menopause may leave a woman feeling old and unattractive, which definitely curbs the desire too. Lastly, the vaginal dryness that accompanies menopause can make intercourse very painful, so this, too, is a contributing factor.

Very Early Signs of Menopause

If you think you are experiencing very early signs of menopause, it is really not all that typical. Very early symptoms of menopause can be caused by a lot of things. And this includes the following:

1. Premature ovarian failure. Your ovaries failed therefore resulting in early menopause. This is mostly seen on women before the age of 40 and their period just suddenly stop. For this reason, they undergo a hormone test and it would show post-menopausal values indeed. The ovary being out of eggs can characterize this case, although it is very rare. The more common reason for this is because the woman's body is not responding to the signals to ovulate any longer.

2. Surgery or Cancer Treatments. A woman can get early menopause if she has subjected herself to certain treatments, usually of cancer, that directly affects her reproductive system. There are also surgeries that can result to this. Oophorectomy, or the removal of the ovaries causes the body not to produce ovarian hormones any longer. Thus, the result is early menopause. Pelvic surgeries, such as hysterectomy, also causes early menopause. The procedure would interfere with the blood flow to the ovaries. Although the effect is not outright, but during time, it will cause an ovarian failure leading to early menopause.

Processes such as chemotherapy and radiation can also cause the ovary to fail. The result is relatively the same - they could not product hormones as they supposed to.

3. Perimenopause. There are instances that a woman experience early signs of menopause symptoms but they are still ovulating. Doctors can say that they have early menopausal stage but actually, they are just experiencing perimenopause.

Perimenopause is actually the time that would eventually lead to a full-blown menopause, but not soon enough. At this stage, the woman's body hormone count is fluctuating, but she is still ovulating.

4. Diminished Ovarian Reserve. During this stage, you will feel the common symptoms of a post-menopausal level, but you are still getting your regular monthly period just fine. This usually occurs to women before the age of 40. It is actually a precursor to an eventual ovarian failure, although premature. This stage is term as the diminished ovarian reserve.

The simple explanation to an early menopausal state is that your body and your reproductive system are not anymore working to the way it is used to. And it happened too soon. Actually much sooner than you might have expected.

You go to your doctor and they confirmed it. You do have early menopause. And for some reasons, your life turns in a full 360 degrees, because for one, you are still a young woman and should not feeling these things anytime soon.

But it did happen and you just have to accept it the way it is. Anyway, there is definitely life after menopause, even though one of your body processes stopped. To help you go through these trying times, there are a lot of support groups and organizations that you go to.

Early signs of menopause can be a problem, but only if you make it so. But don't let it make you feel any less of a woman than you are now. A woman is not determined by her monthly cycles. But by her ability to face life and all that comes with it in general. Facing this challenge with a good attitude just makes you stronger than ever.

The reproductive system is the only system that seemed to have stopped functioning. But the rest of your body is still intact. It is not right to let the rest of your life go off track just because your monthly cycle stops. Try not to let the symptoms of menopause rule your life.

The main idea here is that whether you are experiencing early signs of menopause or not, life has to go on. And it has to go on as it used to be. There should be no change as to how you deal with people, your friends, your family, and even your partner. Anyway, menopause will eventually happen. It's just that it happened to you sooner.

One way to deal with menopause is to take a supplement made specially for women who want to feel younger.

One such supplement is Total Balance for Women and it has been very popular with our readership.

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