Women's Health
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Menopause hormone replacement therapy has been a controversial topic for many years. To date, there is no conclusive evidence that using this therapy will improve a woman’s ability to remain healthy throughout her senior years. Today the terminology has also changed to reflect the fact that physicians no longer believe that replacing hormones is necessarily a good thing. The terminology has changed to Hormone Therapy (HT).
More and more physicians and researchers have stopped looking for ways of improving on the way that the human body works and instead are searching for methods of supporting the body to perform the functions that it can all on its own.
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A woman’s fertility is very important when she is trying to achieve a pregnancy or trying to prevent one. The rest of her life the thought of her fertility hangs on the periphery of her consciousness. It’s not a real concern or thought that passes through her brain. Possibly once a month she’ll be reminded that a pregnancy is possible but unless she is actively trying to prevent one or achieve one this thought passes through quickly.
It is during those times when trying to get pregnant or prevent a pregnancy that taking charge of your fertility is important. The first step to taking charge of your fertility is to understand your menstrual cycle. Each menstrual cycle a woman’s body gets ready to conceive a baby. There is a point in each month that you are more fertile than at other times.
The most fertile time of the month is the middle of the menstrual cycle. Taking charge of your fertility means being able to predict these dates using several techniques. This way you can either avoid or have intercourse, depending upon your goals.
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Menopause is the time in a woman’s life when menstruation ceases ending her years of potential childbirth. This typically occurs between a woman’s late forties to early fifties, commonly at the age of 51 years old.
With menopause come some drastic changes in a woman’s body with decreasing hormones and the potential for osteoporosis due to bone loss. It is important that a woman, while dealing with this change in her body, maintain adequate nutrition. Menopause is a normal occurrence in every woman and a difficult time in her life. For some it can be an easy experience, but for most it is not and will last between 1 to 3 years.
With menopause come many symptoms, one of these being weight gain. Typically, a woman gains approximately 5 pounds during menopause. In part, this weight gain can be attributed to increasing age and fluctuating hormones within the body.
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There are two distinct causes of menopause. One is physiological. This means that the woman’s body is approaching and going through the process of menopause for normal and natural reasons. The other is pathological. This means that a woman is experiencing menopause because there is a medical condition that has caused her ovarian function to decline.
Pathological reasons for a woman to experience menopause early, or even in a normal time frame, are reproductive tract tumors, extreme emotional stress, malnutrition, debilitation, radiation and surgical procedures such as a hysterectomy or other procedures that negatively impact the blood supply to the ovaries.
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Early Symptoms of Menopause
Did you know that menopause isn’t really menopause until you haven’t had a period for at least 12 months? What most women refer to as ‘the change of life’ or menopause is actually perimenopause or early menopause.
The early symptoms of menopause are related to the hormonal levels and changes in the body that happens naturally as women age. Because there is such a negative stigma to menopause many women aren’t all that interested in learning that their bodies are approaching this change.
The negative stigma includes the idea that women who have gone through menopause age faster and gain weight easier. Women are also bothered by the changes to their skin that happens as the protective factors of estrogen are removed and the skin loses collagen and elastin much more quickly. The decline in estrogen is also related to the increased risk factors for heart disease and stroke in women.
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The health burden of escalating overweight and obese adults is well documented in the medical literature as well as well communicated to the public. Attention is commonly focused on the association of obesity with chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and hypertension. Although the problems with obesity and infertility are as well documented they aren’t as well known. Infertility caused by obesity reduces the ability of both men and women to conceive a child spontaneously or without medical intervention.
Infertility caused by obesity is usually defined by a woman who has 30% or greater of her weight made up of fat tissue. While the rates of US citizens who are overweight and obese are rising so also are the infertility rates. They do not always correlate completely but obesity and infertility appear to be linked.
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First, the endometrial lining must be fairly normal in order to conceive and maintain a pregnancy. The lining begins development almost immediately after the menstrual period ends. The lining is built up in response to hormones and to prepare the body for another potential pregnancy. If no pregnancy happens then the body recognizes the event and the endometrial lining is once again shed at the end of the menstrual cycle.
Fertility evaluations should be individualized to each couple based on their history and physical examinations. However, there are some baseline evaluations that should be investigated. Infertility is a condition where by a couple has been having unprotected sex for six months without conception.
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To put it simply, menopause is the end of menstruation for a woman, which brings about the end of her child-bearing years. A woman is considered to be going through menopause when she has not had a period for one year. There is much to learn about menopause, including some of the symptoms to recognize and ways to ease the more troubling ones.
The changes that are happening to a woman’s body which lead up to menopause can last anywhere from a few months up to a few years. For most women, menopause occurs around the age of 50, but there is no set timeline. Some will experience many years of perimenopause, which is the time leading to menopause where the body begins to undergo changes, that can begin much earlier than 50. And, there are some women who will not experience menopause until much later in life.
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Infertility issues affect approximately 6 million adults who are trying to get pregnant. The problem lies with the woman approximately 40% of the time and with the man 40% of the time. Twenty percent of the time the doctor won’t be able to tell where or what the problem is. The female infertility treatments will depend upon the problem or issues the doctor finds on their examination.
There are several issues that can affect the female infertility treatments that will be offered. The reproductive system of the female is incredibly complicated and involves several organ systems and different hormones that regulate the changes that are necessary to achieve a pregnancy. Some of the issues may include ovulation, hormonal imbalance, endometriosis, fallopian tube blockage or failure, pelvic adhesions, scar tissue from previous surgeries, hormonal irregularities and infection.
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