Menopause is essentially a natural process and is not a hormonal problem. It is a stage of life and is not caused by hormonal imbalance or shortage of hormones. Just like aging is a natural process followed by death, menopause is also a result of aging in a broader sense. However hormonal misbalance or shortage may cause early or late menopause.
Putting it in a most simple way, menopause occurs when a woman’s ovary run out of functioning eggs. A female child is born with some 1-3 million eggs, which are gradually used up or lost during her entire life span. By the time a woman reaches puberty she has about 400, 00 eggs. A very small percentage of these eggs are used up during ovulation process (the menstrual cycle). But most of the eggs are lost through a process known as atresia. By the time a woman reaches menopause- not having a menstrual cycle for at least one year- the number of eggs left are only about 10,000.
A woman normally attains menopause at around fifty years of age. As menopause is a normal phenomenon, if a woman does not reach menopause by age 55 years, she may be in for serious health trouble and need to visit gynecologist.
Two important hormones produced in the body of women are Progesterone and Estrogen. These hormones has important role in the control of menstrual cycle. Ovulation triggers production of progesterone. But after menopause as there is no ovulation, the production of progesterone comes down to almost zero. After menopause the body mechanism reduces the production of estrogen to around half of its normal value that existed in the years of normal menstrual cycles.
Therefore it is clear that in normal life cycle, it is the menopause or perimenopause (period approaching menopause) that creates the hormonal imbalance in women body and not that hormonal imbalance causes menopause or perimenopause.
However in case of hormone imbalance in body due to extraneous reasons like life style related stress, poor diet etc. there may be early signs of perimenopause or menopause resulting in early appearance of related symptoms like hot flashes, night sweating, headache, low sex drive, insomnia, depression. If such early hormonal imbalance goes untreated for considerable period, osteoporosis (thinning of bones) or even uterine cancer may eventually develop.
For some women peri-menopausal symptoms (like irregular menstrual periods) at early forties and menopause after a few more years may be normal while for others it may be due to hormonal imbalance which need be treated immediately.
So the best way to pre-empt any premature hormone imbalance of progesterone and estrogen, is to visit gynecologists at the first appearance of perimenopause symptoms like menstruation cycle disturbances, low sex drive, insomnia etc. to determine whether the symptoms are due to approaching natural menopause or are being caused by progesterone and estrogen imbalance due to extraneous reasons.
Since onset of menopause bereft women of much of their youthfulness and vigor, a sense of depression engulfs in most women resulting in behavioral problems too. At this crucial juncture in life, the gynecologist, the counselor, husband and family members all have a roll to stabilize her.
