Know Myself & My Body: Menopause Journey Pt 3

Menopause

What happens after menopause, when does this start, how long does menopause actually last?

Many of you, just like me may be asking this awful questions. Many of us women may not have been quite sure when everything starts or stops.

The average age at which you will commence approach to menopause is roughly 45-55 years, although a few women may experience this as early as 30 and 40years. This depends on a number of factors such as hereditary, health, lifestyle such as smoking, alcohol, extremely overweight etc. These specific condition may cause you to start menopause early.

You may be asking, but how long does menopause last? It may not be easy to know how long your menopause will last. This is said to vary from one woman to another. Some may pass menopause in a flash, others may get a combination of symptoms that come and go , stretching a number of years. To some women menopause is really going to be a horrific time they are going to experience. I have experienced symptoms like hot flashes which are so uncomfortable. These tend to come seasonally. Whereby you tend to have bouts of sweating which come like a passing wave that lasts less than 5 seconds. Not even AC or fan can stop this. This is caused by a mix of hormonal changes in the woman’s body. Generally, its quite difficult to know how you will particularly experience them. Each woman experiences completely unique menopause. You will not know what exactly is going to happen until it actually happens. This is confusing and also frustrating because you cant prepare.

However, there is an approximate time for each stage of menopause.

Peri-menopause is where your hormones start to change and this can sometimes happen very subtly. You may not even know that you are in menopause. Your hormones could have been changing for a couple of years before you suddenly know it. This is the point that can also be confusing because you can be having regular menstruation periods but you can start to have menopause symptoms.

For some women with already certain symptoms associated to menopause, these may cause confusion. Such symptoms include: joint aches, fatigue, digestive problems, palpitations, nausea. Very often these symptoms will take you to the doctor and be told nothing is wrong with you. But if you are 45 years plus and still getting irregular periods, and strange symptoms that seems not to have a particular cause, then very often it means your hormones have started to subtly change and these symptoms are actually manifesting themselves at this particular point.

In some women, it is said the peri-menopause may last 3 years from start to finish. It is said that peri-menopause is harder to deal with than the actual menopause because often when your period stops for good then things tend to balance a little bit. But the challenge is when your period stops you may not sure whether it has stopped for good until after at least 2 years without a period.

So you are not through menopause until you are two yeas without your period. What happens for a majority of women is that once your periods have actually stopped, your symptoms should start to subside such that by the end of the 2 years you should see a lot of improvement. Although this can depend on a number of factors or your general health; depending on how you took care of yourself during perimenopause, your diet. Stress can also prolong menopause. It also determines how long you will go through menopause.

Once the body adapts to that, then comes a time your body platues out. If you have looked after yourself well, then there is no reason why you can’t have a fabulous life after menopause.