How Long Does Menopause Last?

Many women ask this question, but to answer it, we first need to answer another question.

What is Menopause? Speaking scientifically, the answer to the second question is...

Menopause is the time after a woman's monthly periods end.

Usually doctors say you're in menopause if you haven't had a monthly period for more than a year.

Using this definition of menopause, the answer to the first question becomes obvious. Menopause lasts for the rest of your life.

But when most women ask "How long does menopause last?" They aren't talking about how long they won't have periods, they're talking about their menopause symptoms.

What are the...

First Signs of Menopause?

They include:

• irregular monthly periods
  
• monthly periods without ovulation
  
• unexplained irritability
  
• unexplained anxiety
  
• weight gain without eating more, or sometimes even while dieting
  
• retaining water

How long does menopause last?
The Rest of Our Lives--
So Natural Menopause is Best!

In reality this change should be nothing more than a transition to one of the healthiest and most productive periods of a woman's life.

However, if you're like the majority of American women, when you ask "How long does menopause last?" It is because you are struggling with...

Menopausal Symptoms

If you're anything like I was, you can answer that question in many ways. They are a continuation and worsening of those first signs of menopause we mentioned earlier.

I'm not sure which were the biggest irritation to me, but I'll give you a list of those I noticed the most....

• I was irritable.
  
• I had hot flashes
  
• I retained water
  
• I lost my waist line...to the point where I wondered if I might be pregnant in spite of its medical impossibility.
  
• my hips and thighs also grew to the point where it was uncomfortable
  
• it seemed almost impossible to fall asleep at night, and I frequently woke up still feeling tired
  
• I was moody
  
• I felt tired most of the time and struggled with headaches
  
• My skin looked dry and seemed to have wrinkled more in the past two or three years than it had in the previous fifty.

• vaginal atrophy, irritation, or dryness of genital tissue
  
• lost libido
  
• forgetfulness
  
• inability to concentrate
  
• losing your hair, (or growing it on your face while losing it on your head)
  
• spotting or bleeding
  
• osteopenia (weakening bones)
  
• osteoporosis (weak bones)
  
• inexplicable body aches and pains
  
• depression

The Conventional Medical Answer -

"How Long Does Menopause Last?"

Usually his, or her, answer is to start you on conventional hormone replacement therapy (HRT), to alleviate the symptoms you're dealing with.

If I covered the topic of hormone replacement therapy here, the page would become a book, so I'll save that for another page.

But I will include the results of the Women's Health Initiative study, which was stopped three years early, due to the increased health risks for the participants.

This study was designed to show the results of using the most commonly prescribed form of conventional hormone replacement therapy, PremPro. There were 16 thousand women between the ages of fifty and seventy-nine. They stopped the study after only five years, because they found that the women using the drugs had a...

• 29% higher risk of breast cancer
  
• 26% higher risk of heart disease
  
• 41% higher risk of stroke

Lest you think that estrogen replacement therapy (ERT) alone is a better option, another study by the Breast Cancer Detection Demonstration Project done slightly later, showed that this therapy increased a woman's risk of getting ovarian cancer by more than three fold!

Please, whatever you do, don't let your doctor pressure you into taking these drugs. They are NOT a good answer to the question "How long does menopause last?"

Natural Hormonal Balance

However, although the answer can be written in one sentence, understanding the answer is much more complex. There are several topics that should be covered in detail before you'll have a comfortable understanding of the topic.

• The first is estrogen. Estrogen is not the name of one hormone, but a complex of them.
  
• The second is progesterone.
  
• The third is the difference between natural hormones and the hormonal drugs such as PremPro, commonly prescribed by doctors.
  
• The fourth is the role other hormones such as sex hormones, androgens, adrenal, and thyroid hormones have in our bodies.
  
• The fifth is xenohormones and their effects on us.
  
• The sixth is understanding estrogen dominance, and its effects on our health.
  
• The seventh is understanding how all of this information affects our health during our menopausal years.

All of these are important in resolving hormonal imbalance and the unpleasant symptoms that prompt us to ask...

"How long does menopause last?"

As time permits I will be addressing all of these issues. If you need answers now, I recommend two sources for more detailed information.

One is the Life Extension Foundation. Life Extension Health Concerns provide extensive articles about menopause and its health challenges under their female reproductive health section.

The second is a book, called What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause (TM): The Breakthrough Book on Natural Hormone Balance. This book is available from your public library, or from Amazon by clicking on the preceding link. It is probably also available from many other book stores.

Move Toward Natural Hormonal Balance Now

For more details on usage and availability, please click on the preceding links to read detailed pages about them.

For me, adding a natural progesterone cream to my supplemental regimen had very noticeable results. I literally lost two inches from my waist within the first week of use. I've also found I'm much better able to sleep at night.

Menopause was medically induced for me as a side effect of chemotherapy. I've struggled with what I now know are "estrogen dominance" symptoms ever since.

Although doctors warned me I should use "no hormones" due to the risk of cancer recurrence, after reading What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause (TM): The Breakthrough Book on Natural Hormone Balance, I realized the doctors were probably concerned about the risks of synthetic progestins, not natural progesterone.

I have been very relieved by the improvement in my health and well being, since I started using a natural progesterone cream.

Although I've remained in menopause according the the medical definition of the term, using the cream resolved the menopause symptoms I'd been struggling with almost entirely.

It has restored my ability to focus on life, rather than the difficulties of menopause. I suspect it can have the same benefits for you.

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