For the 1.2 million women who enter menopause each year in the United States, life can get chaotic, confusing, and uncomfortable. Historically, most women didn’t really talk about this transition, so many of us have little to go on, as our mothers or aunts never told us what to expect. As a result, millions of women are caught off guard by menopause.
The team at Capital Women’s Care wants to change that and the first order of business is to debunk a few myths. We help women through every stage of life — from puberty through childbearing and then on to menopause, and we know that this final reproductive stage can be life-altering.
So, let’s dive in and separate fact from fiction when it comes to menopause.
Menopause can be a long haul for many women. Technically, a woman has passed through menopause when she no longer has her period for 12 months. This signals that your ovaries have shut down and they’re no longer releasing eggs.
Before this occurs, you can experience a lead-up period called perimenopause, which can last for several years and even up to 10 years.
Then, once you make the final transition through menopause, you can still experience symptoms of menopause for many years. In fact, the average length of menopause symptoms is 7 years.
To be sure, some women can sail through this transition, but most endure perimenopause and menopause for years.
While some women can weather sudden changes in their body temperature with ease, most find this symptom to be highly disruptive.
Hot flashes and night sweats are the most common side effect of menopause and impact about 75% of women. These sudden rises in body temperature can occur frequently throughout the day and night, leaving you drenched and then chilled.
While hot flashes can rob you of productivity and sleep, they’re also exhausting, to say nothing of what they can do to your mood.
When you lose estrogen hormones, it can kick off a long laundry list of physical changes in your body, such as vaginal dryness, which affects more than half of women.
What many people don’t realize is that the side effects of menopause can extend into your mental health. Many women report heightened anxiety as well depression and panic attacks.
When estrogen and progesterone hormone levels fall, so do the levels of serotonin, which is the brain chemical that regulates mood. This drop in serotonin can trigger mood swings as well as depression and anxiety symptoms.
If your life has been affected by menopause in significant ways, we want you to know that there are solutions. For example, we offer hormone replacement therapies that can help offset many menopause symptoms. These hormone therapies can be systemic for targeting wider issues, such as hot flashes and bone loss, or targeted, such as vaginal estrogen creams that can improve vaginal dryness.
We can also prescribe nonhormonal medications that address hot flashes, as well as provide you with lifestyle hacks to help manage your menopause symptoms.
We want to end on an important note: No two women experience menopause in the same way. The bottom line is that if your quality of life has been diminished by this hormonal transition, please come see us so we can help ease this stage of your life.
To review your options for menopause with a women’s health expert, please contact one of our three conveniently located offices in Frederick and Mount Airy, Maryland, to schedule an appointment.
