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There is a great misunderstanding about the terms used to elucidate the experience of menopause. The word itself is widely employed to describe the entire period in which women undergo symptoms due to their hormones being in flux. In reality, the word "menopause" refers simply to the final period of menstruation, in the same manner that "menarche" indicates the initial.
Premenopausue is used by few to point to the time whenever menstruation is natural and before hormone levels start to fall down. Few people says the word to point to the time with in the perimenopause before the final period.
The weeks before and after the final menstrual period are referred to as "perimenopause", sometimes called the "climacteric". Hormone levels will have begun to change. When the fluctuations settle, symptoms will cease. It has become common for for women to refer to this period of time as their menopause.
Postmenopause actually starts the day after the last menstrual bleed and describes any time after that. It includes some of the perimenopause, and a woman after her last period is described as postmenopausal, although the term will not be used until a year after the last period because no one will be sure which the last one was until a year has passed. Ninety percent of women in the perimenopause who have not had a period for six months do not have another one.
Menopause and Estrogen
Until menopause, estrogen and progesterone are produced and released over an approximately 28-day cycle. As the supply and quality of eggs declines in midlife, hormone production from the ovaries becomes erratic. With progression towards menopause, levels of progesterone and estrogen diminish.
Pre-menopausal. Leading up to ovulation is when estrogen levels reach their peak, but quickly decline afterwards. During this second half of the menstrual cycle is when progesterone starts to rise. If the ovulated egg is not fertilized, levels of both these hormones drops, which in turn signals the body to start menstrual bleeding.
Perimenopause. Ovulation is getting more irregular and infrequent, even though estrogen is still being produced by your ovaries. Progesterone is not actually produced during every menstrual cycle now, and for some months there may be no bleeding at all.
Postmenopausal. At this stage of life, there is very little estrogen present in your body, and what small amount is present is actually produced by the process of your body's fat cells processing the androstenedione hormone.
Brittle Bones and Osteoporosis
About half of all women in the Western world have a serious degree of osteoporosis by the age of 70, and around age 60 - only 10 years after the average age of menopause - nearly a quarter of women will already have brittle bones. The lower level of estrogen circulating in the bloodstream is directly responsible for this. This alone is reason enough for finding some form of menopause treatment, either natural, herbal or medical, to help offset the side effects and symptoms of menopause.
Calcium is the mineral mainly involved in the process of bone building. Calcitonin and parathyroid hormone control the calcium levels in blood and estrogen is partly responsible for its metabolism. The osteoclasts and osteoblasts have estrogen receptors.
Most of our calcium is stored in our bones, and if blood calcium levels fall the parathyroid hormone will act to break down bone and release calcium into the blood. Low estrogen levels make bone more sensitive to parathyroid hormone, causing it to be broken down more rapidly after menopause.
You need to understand your options during your menopause experience and what treatment options you have.
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