THE DIMINISHING REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM

Women have its ups and downs. It signifies the ending of her most fruitful moment of his life to have children she wanted to care. It was the cherish wish of every woman to have a happy family. The child was the center stage of their married life. This happiness is only momentary. Menopause is the mark that her child-bearing years has ended and permanently stopped. It was time of challenge, boredom, loneliness and period of uncertainty.

In the menopausal stage, it ceased the menstrual cycle every woman is expecting every month as normal body process in biological form she can’t avoid. The woman’s ovaries no longer produce hormones as required to bear a child. It started to slow down as she reaches the age of 40 and completely stopped at the age of 50 or over. There are some of them ended much earlier.

During her child bearing years, there was continues production of female hormones (estrogen and progesterone) in the ovary. It fluctuates every month especially if there is cyclical development of new eggs.  It continues to slowly decline until the ovary no longer produce any as a sign of entering into menopausal stage. Her menstrual period was now irregular or even complete stopped. 

After menopause, a woman can still produce estrogen in small amount through her adrenal gland. A woman has no idea when her monthly period will stop no until she felt great changes in her biological processes when she no longer bear a child.

One a woman entered her menopausal stage, there is natural biological experiences she felt of having hot flashes, occasional bleeding and spotting. Hot flashes give her uncomfortable feeling of intense heat in the duration of two minutes or more. There was intense heat in her upper chest, arms, head and neck anytime of the day and repeated one or more during the day and night.

There was redness of the skin and profuse sweating. It continues year after year and even lasted 5 years. There was thinning and weakening of bones. The bones easily fracture. The brittle bones are common to older women especially in the hip or wrists. The spinal vertebra was weakened. Any slight stress to the bones will result to compression fractures deadly to older women. There is low back pain and loss in height being observed.

She has bowed posture sue to loss of flexibility and elasticity of the muscles around the damaged bones. She felt painful headache similar to migraine. There is pain in her back, neck and in the chest portion. She has bouts of sleeplessness (insomnia), irritable, mood swing, anxiety, depression, nausea, constipation, sadness and confusion.

She was irritable even in slight displeasure. She was keen on wrong impression and easily get angry to unfavorable remarks. Her response was the result of her belief of rejection from other people due to her body changes not easy to comprehend. 

Her internal passage shortens. It becomes narrower and no longer elastic. Its lining has cellular changes. It loses its thickness, it becomes thinner as the days passes by. He is susceptible to bacterial infection. Her internal passage losses its normal acidity and the natural secretion completely stopped.

A woman in her 50’s started to feel lonely. She can’t easily adjust to new environment she has to fit in. To remain young, vibrant, active and wrinkle-free was already history. Her face and skin has wrinkles as sign of getting older. Old age makes her susceptible to many kinds of diseases because of lack of hormonal balance (estrogen).

Heart disease, cancer of the colon, Alzheimer’s disease and degenerative disease affecting the central nervous system were among the few. There was drastic change in her mental capacity. She often had memory loss, her reasoning power, ability to maintain better self-care and personal hygiene was deteriorating.

 She loses her ability to be active and participate in social gathering. She just sat there alone as if no flicker of life left in her. Her children were no longer with her. There was incompleteness in her life.

To minimize the impact of menopause especially during the time when there are hot flashes, some tips may help to handle the inconveniences:

-Drink plenty of water to quench the thirst when the normal temperature of the body increases slightly.

-Minimize taking alcohol, coffee and tea. It alters the normal conditioning of the body.

-A little exercise each day helps the bones to maintain strength from its deteriorating bone structure after menopause.

-Stay at cool environment. Make the house as cool as possible with enough windows for the air to pass through inside to keep you from perspiring.

-Don’t wear tight dress instead a light and loosen dress is helpful to cool you down.

-Control your mood swing or irritability. It increases your temperature level and felt hot.

-Use water-based gel or other over-the-counter preparations intended to give relief from dryness in the internal passage.

-Talk to your doctor for possible use of estrogen. He will evaluate your condition. If found that it will not contradict to your present state of health, it will be a great help to give relief of being uncomfortable.

POST-MENOPAUSAL EXPERIENCE

As women are approaching the primetime of their lives, their agony and inconvenience begin. Menopause is in the later stage of being a woman when there is some changes in the bio-chemistry of the body once pregnancy stop. Most often it occurred the age of 50 or over. It was the end of their childbearing years.

Menopause is the natural changes of woman’s life. It is gradual process of change which begins 5 years before menopause. The woman’s body produces hormones (estrogen and progesterone). As she near the post-menopausal period, the production of hormone started to decline abnormally. Its reduction influence the menstrual period slowly until permanently stopped.

The most distressing effect of menopause is hot flashes. It was a sudden feeling of warmth in the upper part of the body or it may affect the whole part of the body. There is warmness in the face and redness on the chest, back, upper arms and shoulder portion. There’s perspiration that will occur.

As the body temperature readjust to the changes, it easily perspire and has cold clammy hands. Hot flashes showed several times in a day. The degree and duration of hot flashes depends on how the body will adapt to the changes. It may be severe or disappear partially or totally in few months or last several years.

Menopause brought lots of discomfort. They were vulnerable to urinary tract infection, urinary incontinence. The pressure on the bladder during laughing, coughing and other activities causes portion of the urine let during urination. The restriction happened during bladder stress.

In post-menopausal period, osteoporosis was common because of the decrease production of estrogen. The bones of older women can easily brittle or fracture as the bone mass slowly decreases its strength and durability. It was the reason of having porous bones. 

Fractures are common in the area in the wrists, spine, hips and forearms. Osteoporosis can’t be detected the early stage of losing calcium. There’s no symptom whatsoever is felt. As the seriousness of the condition progresses reaching the point untreatable, fractures will occur if the bones can’t handle with the pressure especially meeting accidents and breaking some bones.

Calcium is needed in the early stage of osteoporosis. The progression may delay or may stop and recovery may be possible slowing down further the bone loss. Taking vitamin D is important for calcium absorption. Those women that can afford resorted to estrogen replacement. But it has after effect of feeling headache, nausea, swollen breasts, weight gain and fluid retention.

Menopause brought discomfort but it is part of aging process many women have to pass. Many women in menopausal stage has mood swing, easily get tired, feeling nervous, excessive sweating, insomnia, headache, breathing problem, painful joints and muscles, irritable and don’t have enough patience if contrary to her expectation.

It is important for women to develop positive outlook in life. Menopause is normal part of aging. We can’t control aging. A woman should adjust to the changes that occurred in her life. The transition may be difficult but with positive attitudes he can pass the crisis in due time.

Menopausal women should maintain healthy life. To minimize the impact of the post-menopausal period, women should start keeping their bodies to stay healthy at all times. To aid from her body changes, she should maintain better nutrition, good diet and other nutritional requirement to keep her body acquires enough defenses against infections. A balanced diet may help to correct any nutritional deficiencies that will cause further stress during her menopausal period.