Know When Menopause Is Approaching

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Dr. Joshua Vogel with Carolina Ob-Gyn, a division of Wilmington Health Associates and I'm going to be speaking to you today about how to know when menopause is approaching. Clearly, there is an age factor that makes one suspect and the menopause most typically occurs between the ages of forty five and fifty five, most commonly occurring around fifty two. So, first thing to do is ask yourself at what age you are in life. The most common symptoms that one experiences are hot flashes plus or minus a change in your menstrual cycles. These menstrual cycle changes can take all kinds of forms including a shortening of your cycle interval or a lengthening of your cycle interval and increasing or decreasing of your menstrual flow and increasing or decreasing of the number of days of your flow. Changes one should be very cautious about and seek immediate attention for are bleeding that is occurring that is outside the time of your menstrual flow. Additionally, as I mentioned earlier, one may have hot flashes of various degrees but these are not essential to the diagnosis of peri-menopause. If you have any questions about what you're experiencing, see your doctor, evaluation is not difficult to perform. The typical length of this peri-menopausal time averages four to five years. If you think you're going through this, talk to your doctor; make sure that there is not something else going on. This has been a discussion of how to know when you're approaching a menopause."