But starting menopause earlier may have some benefits, too. Early menopause may lower your risk of breast , endometrial , and ovarian cancers. Studies have shown women who go through menopause after age 55 have about a 30 percent higher risk of developing breast cancer than those who experience the change before age Experts believe this increased risk happens because women who undergo menopause later are exposed to more estrogen throughout their lifetimes. Quitting smoking may help postpone the onset of early menopause.
Here are 15 tips for quitting smoking. A study found consuming a high amount of oily fish , fresh legumes , vitamin B-6 , and zinc delayed natural menopause.
However, eating a lot of refined pasta and rice was linked to earlier menopause. Another study found consuming high amounts of vitamin D and calcium may be linked to a lower risk of early menopause. Continue seeing your doctor regularly during perimenopause and menopause. They can help ease any concerns you might have about this pivotal change in your life. This may be a sign of a serious health problem.
Menopause is a natural part of aging. You can expect to experience this change around the same time your mother did. While menopause can cause some unwelcome symptoms, there are many treatments that can help. To help you get a handle on menopause, here are 11 things you should know about this transitional stage of life.
Just like your skin, your vagina changes throughout your life. Thanks to the help of women's health experts, we'll show you how to keep your vagina in…. Menopause is well known, but there are 2 other stages you should understand: premenopause and perimenopause. Learn about symptoms, treatments, and…. Learn about mindful living during…. To end fibroid pain, this writer decided to get a hysterectomy at age Most hot flashes last between 30 seconds and 10 minutes. They can happen several times an hour, a few times a day, or just once or twice a week.
Bladder control. A loss of bladder control is called incontinence. You may have a sudden urge to urinate, or urine may leak during exercise, sneezing, or laughing.
The first step in treating incontinence is to see a doctor. Bladder infections also can occur in midlife. Night sweats might wake you up. And if you wake up during the night, you might have trouble falling back to sleep. Vaginal health and sexuality. After menopause, the vagina may become drier, which can make sexual intercourse uncomfortable. Read about options for addressing vaginal pain during sex in Sex and Menopause: Treatment for Symptoms. You may also find that your feelings about sex are changing.
You could be less interested, or you could feel freer and sexier because after one full year without a period, you can no longer become pregnant. Your risk for an STD increases if you have sex with more than one person or with someone who has sex with others.
If so, make sure your partner uses a condom each time you have sex. Mood changes. You might feel moodier or more irritable around the time of menopause. There are treatments available to help. Your body seems different. Your waist could get larger. You could lose muscle and gain fat. Your skin could become thinner. You might have memory problems , and your joints and muscles could feel stiff and achy. Researchers are exploring such changes and how they relate to hormones and growing older.
In addition, for some women, symptoms may include aches and pains , headaches, and heart palpitations. Follow up with a doctor. Often, menstrual periods will skip a month and return, or skip several months and then start monthly cycles again for a few months.
Periods also tend to happen on shorter cycles, so they are closer together. Despite irregular periods, pregnancy is possible. If you've skipped a period but aren't sure you've started the menopausal transition, consider a pregnancy test. Keep up with regular visits with your doctor for preventive health care and any medical concerns.
Continue getting these appointments during and after menopause. Preventive health care as you age may include recommended health screening tests, such as colonoscopy, mammography and triglyceride screening. Your doctor might recommend other tests and exams, too, including thyroid testing if suggested by your history, and breast and pelvic exams. Naturally declining reproductive hormones. As you approach your late 30s, your ovaries start making less estrogen and progesterone — the hormones that regulate menstruation — and your fertility declines.
In your 40s, your menstrual periods may become longer or shorter, heavier or lighter, and more or less frequent, until eventually — on average, by age 51 — your ovaries stop releasing eggs, and you have no more periods. Surgery that removes the ovaries oophorectomy.
Your ovaries produce hormones, including estrogen and progesterone, that regulate the menstrual cycle. Surgery to remove your ovaries causes immediate menopause. Your periods stop, and you're likely to have hot flashes and experience other menopausal signs and symptoms. Signs and symptoms can be severe, as hormonal changes occur abruptly rather than gradually over several years. Surgery that removes your uterus but not your ovaries hysterectomy usually doesn't cause immediate menopause.
Although you no longer have periods, your ovaries still release eggs and produce estrogen and progesterone. Urinary incontinence. As the tissues of your vagina and urethra lose elasticity, you may experience frequent, sudden, strong urges to urinate, followed by an involuntary loss of urine urge incontinence , or the loss of urine with coughing, laughing or lifting stress incontinence.
You may have urinary tract infections more often. Strengthening pelvic floor muscles with Kegel exercises and using a topical vaginal estrogen may help relieve symptoms of incontinence.
Hormone therapy may also be an effective treatment option for menopausal urinary tract and vaginal changes that can result in urinary incontinence. Sexual function. Vaginal dryness from decreased moisture production and loss of elasticity can cause discomfort and slight bleeding during sexual intercourse.
Also, decreased sensation may reduce your desire for sexual activity libido. Water-based vaginal moisturizers and lubricants may help. If a vaginal lubricant isn't enough, many women benefit from the use of local vaginal estrogen treatment, available as a vaginal cream, tablet or ring.
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