Menopause: Symptoms, Hormonal Changes, and Treatment

What Is Menopause?

Menopause is not a disease or disorder; it is a perfectly normal stage in a woman's reproductive cycle during which her egg production halts. Most women experience menopause between the ages of 45 and 55, depending largely on heredity. Egg production does not halt suddenly — instead, menopause occurs in stages and may take years before a woman no longer needs to worry about getting a period at all. In most cases, women will experience irregular periods for years as their cycle becomes increasingly disrupted, with periods arriving either too close together or too far apart.

A woman undergoing menopause may also experience symptoms such as hot flashes, mood swings, vaginal dryness, and a lower sex drive. However, in many cases no such symptoms appear, and the only sign may be an irregular cycle.

Hormonal Changes and Their Effects

Menopause and its symptoms occur because of changes in the production of two critically important female hormones: estrogen and progesterone. During her childbearing years, a woman's body produces just the right amounts of estrogen and progesterone to allow ovulation. Any significant shift in the balance of these two hormones can cause serious changes to the menstrual cycle. A woman undergoing menopause experiences changes whereby her egg production is affected by declining estrogen and progesterone levels.

Both low and high estrogen can cause the body to produce deficient eggs or to stop producing them entirely. In a woman approaching menopause, estrogen levels normally decline to the point where egg production either becomes highly irregular or ceases completely. It is also believed that any eggs produced during the menopausal years are generally deficient or immature, and thus unable to achieve fertilization. For this reason, women typically do not become pregnant during the menopausal years even if they are still getting occasional periods.