Menopause is a natural transition and happens for every woman. The term is generally used to encompass the whole of a long-lasting process that altogether relates to the end of a woman’s fertility, also known as the ‘change in life’.
This change is perfectly normal and a healthy body will constantly adjust to change. However, in today’s environment, a number of factors can change the body’s ability to adapt to change, including environmental toxins, poor nutrition, a lack of essential minerals and the stress of juggling work and domestic life.
What Defines Menopause?
When a woman enters menopause she steps biologically out of the primary child-bearing role and the hormones related to this function begin to diminish. However, there is still a vital, health-enhancing role for her reproductive hormones that now has nothing to do with reproduction and everything to do with maintaining good health. Hormone receptors are found on almost every organ in the body and are essential for our health and wellbeing.
Menopause is preceded by perimenopause, which is where the hormones begin to fluctuate and/or decline(find out more about perimenopause here) whilst menopause, or postmenopausal, describes women who have not experienced any menstrual flow for a minimum of a year, and whose ovaries have become inactive.
What Are The Symptoms of Menopause?
A woman’s reproductive hormone levels continue to drop and fluctuate for some time into postmenopause, accompanied by symptoms that may take several years to disappear. Symptoms are similar to those leading up to menopause, but with more consistency in:
- Hot flushes and night sweats
- Difficulty sleeping (insomnia)
- Changes in mood, such as feeling tired, irritable, depressed or anxious
- Difficulty concentrating or poor memory
- Changes to the vagina, such as thinning, dryness, discomfort, itching and pain during sex
- Loss of interest in sex (loss of libido)
- Urinary problems – such as recurrent urinary tract infections, loss of bladder control (urinary incontinence)
- Joint aches and pains.
How Do We Treat All Stages of Menopause?
As a woman moves through each phase of menopause, hormone levels can fluctuate significantly, however, these vital hormones, such as estrogen, progesterone and testosterone remain important for bones, vaginal and urethral health, skin, brain function and cardiovascular health. It is therefore important to effectively balance and replenish these hormones in order to maintain a woman’s health, energy, mood and brain function.
However, one size does not fit all and at the Marion Gluck Clinic we carry out a thorough consultation, together with appropriate tests, when symptoms begin displaying as this enable us to provide a bespoke treatment path, developed for the individual’s needs.
As every woman is unique, so are her hormones. Every woman has her ‘own’ menopause and thus every hormone solution is specifically designed for her.