Basic Facts About Menopause:
Menopause is a natural biologic event, not an “estrogen deficiency disease.” Menopause represents the permanent cessation of menses. resulting from loss of ovarian follicular function. Menopause is also a psychosocial passage.
At menopause, the decline in ovarian hormones (particularly estrogen) may result in short-term, unpleasant effects such as hot flashes that adversely affect quality of life, and may increase the risk of osteoporosis and possibly coronary heart disease.
One thing is true for all women: menopause is a signal to start -- or continue -- a good health program. Clinicians are urged to utilize an individualized approach to “menopause management,” because no intervention is appropriate for every woman and each option has a risk/benefit profile unique to each woman.
Because of current population shifts, a woman’s health after menopause has assumed greater importance than ever before. The ideal goal is that of maximum vigor until death. Although some decline is unavoidable, much of what is considered as normal aging can be modified with lifestyle and pharmacologic interventions. Menopause is a time for women to evaluate their health and lifestyle practices.
Menopause can occur naturally (i.e., spontaneously) or be induced through a medical intervention (i.e., surgery, chemotherapy, or pelvic radiation therapy).
Definitions:
The Council of Affiliated Menopause Societies (CAMS) of the International Menopause Society (IMS) has developed standardized definitions for menopause-related events. In October 1999, the IMS voted to use these definitions worldwide.
Menopause (natural menopause):
Menopause (i.e., “natural” or spontaneous menopause) is defined by CAMS as the following: “The permanent cessation of menstruation resulting from the loss of ovarian follicular activity. Natural menopause is recognized to have occurred after 12 consecutive months of amenorrhea, for which there is no other obvious pathologic or physiologic cause. Menopause occurs with the final menstrual period, which is known with certainty only in retrospect a year or more after the event. An adequate independent biological marker for the event does not exist.”
Menopause occurs at a average age of 52 years. Some women start as early as age 40 and others as late as 58 years old. Some women are diagnosed menopause in their 30s (Dr. John Lee says this is an error), and a few in their 60s. Although there has been an increase in life expectancy over the years, the age of menopause has not changed over the past few centuries -- unaffected by improving nutrition and reduction of disease. In previous centuries, few women lived beyond menopause; today, women spend one-third to one-half of their lives after menopause.
Menopause (permanent ovarian failure) means the end of natural childbearing (without assisted reproductive techniques).
Menopause is one point in time. The misnomers “in menopause” and “going through menopause” accurately describe perimenopause. It is appropriate to say that one “reaches” menopause. .
