Know When Menopause Starts & Ends

Video Transcript

"Knowing when the menopause starts and ends can be complicated sometimes. The definition of the menopause is cessation of menstrual periods after loss of ovarian activity. That's hard for someone to determine on their own. know one really knows what's going on inside the ovaries within themselves. So in practical terms we define it as one year after the cessation of all menstrual periods. In addition to discontinuing to have your menstrual period, there are other symptoms that can be involved with the menopause. The most common ones are changes in body mass, skin changes including wrinkling, hot flushes, irritability, depression. Those are pretty common symptoms as well as vaginal dryness. Other changes that can occur in a woman's body include osteoporosis and atherosclerosis. To know when the menopause ends is also a little bit complicated because some women can experience these symptoms for many years and others don't and have it for a very short time. And I guess in a very small percentage of the population may never even get any of these symptoms. It doesn't necessarily mean they're not in the menopause. If you are having these symptoms, one way to help control them would be to use hormone replacement therapy. Hormone replacement therapy is a very complicated subject and it is one that you should discuss at length with your physician. Again, preferably a gynecologist. But as far as knowing, as far as defining the end of menopause, there is no real end to it. When one enters the menopause they're in that state pretty much until the end of their life."