Menopause: Stay informed & stay healthy!

Tina (name changed) started to cry her heart out after explaining the situations that she is going through at her home and workplace, while struggling to explain what’s happening to her and what bothered her more was that none around her were supportive who failed to understand what she was going through. She was struggling between her work life & personal life, she was feeling a burden on her shoulder which no one could understand so as to be supportive. Frequent occurrence of unusual headaches, stress & anxiety, depressed state of mood almost all the time, mood swings, and irregular periods from last one year, almost all the symptoms of menopause, added more of a pressure to her life, which people could have easily lifted out of her just being supportive but most of them didn’t realise.

When I come across patients like Tina I feel a lot for most women like Tina who wont get the proper support and suffer both in their personal and professional life, just because of lack of awareness on the topic menopause. The symptoms that Tina explained are the classic early symptoms of Menopause, considering her age as one more factor, with which she was struggling. Writing this article to give my best knowledge out there to all so that everyone of us can be supportive to women like Tina without adding more to their already existing burdensome life.

First let me explain you about Menopause, its a natural process which most women goes through in which her periods stop due to lower hormone levels, this usually happens between the age of 45 to 52. Sometimes in some cases this process may happen earlier naturally, between the age 40 to 45, leading to peri-menopause. Peri-menopause may occur due to varied reasons, it may be because genetic reasons or individuals body hormones related issues, or sometimes the reason is unknown too. And, in some cases menopause can happen before 40, which is called premature ovarian failure. Early menopause is common especially if an individual who goes through surgery to remove ovaries (oophorectomy) or the uterus (hysterectomy), or treated for cancer with Chemotherapy.

Here, let me explain more about early menopause so that one gets to understand the symptoms better so as to live with no anxiety. One of the predominant symptoms is change in cycles (periods occurrence). Some may experience less frequent periods than usual, and may start experiencing irregular periods. The cycles vary from person to person. Bleeding may be scanty even though they experience significant premenstrual symptoms (bloatedness, nausea, breast discomfort and pelvic cramps). Not having a period is not a concern in this phase of life and symptoms can be relieved with lifestyle changes (discussed later) and simple analgesics. On the other extreme- women may have excessive bleeding. This could manifest as very frequent periods- twice or thrice a month- , excess and prolonged bleed. This can result in excessive fatigue as well as impact on social life. It is this that needs a thorough check by your gynaecologist- to rule out suspicious changes such as cancer. This can involve hysteroscopy and biopsy. Your doctor, once cancer is ruled out, will discuss treatment options.