Menopause is the time in a woman’s life when her menstrual period starts occurring at longer or irregular intervals, often with less menstrual flow. This is due to a gradual decrease in the levels of the female sex hormones estrogen and progesterone. Eventually, the menstrual period stops altogether. A woman is said to be in menopause when her period has stopped for more than a year. The time leading up to menopause is known as perimenopause, and the time after menopause is complete is known as postmenopause. Many physiological and psychological changes occur in the body, and this is a time of both physical and emotional adjustment in a woman’s life.
This is a condition of the bones where the bones become thin and weak, it mainly occurs in the wrist, hips and spine and it is a disease which mainly affects women who have gone through the menopause. However it isn’t just limited to women and men and younger people can also be affected too, though in younger people there are generally other factors contributing to the cause as well.
The disease affects millions of people throughout the world, with more of these being women, a huge percentage of fractures that occur do so as a result of osteoporosis. Women are more at risk due to the loss of bone speeding up after they have gone through the menopause, the risk is increased even more in women who have gone through menopause early or who have had their ovaries removed before reaching menopause.
The menopause signifies the end of a woman’s reproductive period and as such is often called the change of life. On average the menopause will begin around the age of 50 but this can vary from person to person with some women starting as early as in their late 30`s and some as late as their 60`s.
The start of the menopause comes around when the ovaries stop responding to hormones released by the pituitary gland in the brain. When this happens the ovaries will not release an egg every month and the periods stop, the oestrogen and progesterone hormones which are the female sex hormones fail and when the level of these fall in the bloodstream the symptoms of menopause arise.
