What Menopause Is And Isn't
What Menopause Means For Your Hormones
When Menopause First Gets Your Attention

Perimenopause Depression
Hormone Replacement Therapy
Symptoms Of Perimenopause
Menopause Insomnia
Sign Of Menopause
Signs Of Perimenopause
Early Menopause Symptom
Menopause Symptom Relief
Hot Flashes Menopause
Herbal Menopause Treatment
Herbal Supplement For Menopause
Menopause Treatment
Menstrual Cycle Perimenopause
Side Effects Of Menopause
Menopause Irregular Bleeding
Menopause Estrogen
Menopause Nutrition
Womens Health Menopause

Understanding Peri Menopause

Author : Judy Wellsworth 

Most women know that they will experience menopause, and the end of t heir reproductive cycle, at sometime during middle age, and usually between their mid forties and mid fifties. But what many women do not realize is that, even while they are still having regular menstrual cycles, their bodies are beginning to under go the changes which will result in full menopause after several years. These early changes are clinically referred to as peri menopause.

What Is Peri Menopause?

Menopause is the result of the body's estrogen production diminishing, and as the estrogen diminishes, the number of ova, or eggs within a woman's ovaries is also diminished, until the ovaries contain no more ova. As the number of ova drops, the production of estrogen also drops, until it ceases almost completely. At this point, a woman has finished menopause.

The symptoms of peri menopause, during which the decrease in ova an estrogen begins, can resemble the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome to a great degree, with mood shifts which can make peri menopausal women irritable, angry, or depressed. If you are feeling those mood changes when you have never been bothered with PM, they could be a sign that you have entered it and should schedule an appointment with your gynecologist to confirm the diagnosis.

If you have noticed a change in your sleep habits for which other factors like stress or illness cannot account, those changes may be another sign of peri menopause. It can also surface in a decrease of your formerly abundant energy, or insomnia.

Talk To Your Gynecologist

If you want to know what to expect from peri menopause, or think you might be in peri menopause, your gynecologist is the best one to explain it to you. Medical technology has now become so advanced that it can not only determine the presence of the hormonal change which occur with very early pregnancy; it can detect the small changes in your estrogen production which come with the early stages of it.

Many, many women have negative feelings about facing menopause. But if you prepare properly, menopause need not be a major disruption in your life. You can minimize its effects well in advance by changing your diet and exercise patterns as soon as you know you have reached peri menopause

The worst thing you can do, if you want to have an easy menopause, is to ignore it because it is a reminder that you are growing older. Yes, we are all getting older every minute, but we are also living longer than ever before. Menopause is a change, but that is all it is!