What women need to know about menopause

Menopause is a rather complex physiological process, mainly due to endocrine imbalance. There is no consensus on the cause of the imbalance, but most scholars believe that it is due to ovarian atrophy. How many years the ovarian function is maintained depends on the number of follicles contained in the ovaries. Due to the degeneration of the ovaries, the level of estrogen in the body decreases, which causes a series of changes. The follicles lose their ovulation function, and menstruation becomes irregular. Later, the follicles stop developing and the level of estrogen in the body fluids decreases further. At this time, some women may have delayed menstruation, shortened menstrual periods, and reduced menstrual blood volume; but some women may have frequent menstruation, increased menstrual blood volume, and prolonged bleeding time; and a few women may have regular menstruation all the time; but no matter what changes occur in menstruation during this process, menstruation finally stops. According to the author's survey of 929 retired female workers, the average age of menopause is 48.85 years old. 567 women, or 61%, experienced menopause between the ages of 48 and 52; the vast majority, or 879 women, or 94.6%, experienced menopause between the ages of 42 and 55; the latest woman to experience menopause was 58 years old.

Since the nervous system, especially the hypothalamus and autonomic nervous system, plays an important role in regulating the pituitary gland and the relationship between it and the gonads, the nervous system is often prone to instability during menopause. The main manifestations are neurovascular motor dysfunction, such as hot flashes, headaches, sweating, blood pressure fluctuations, paroxysmal vertigo, nervousness, emotional instability, memory loss, fatigue, lack of concentration, tinnitus, etc. These symptoms are not obvious for some people, and some may exist for a period of time, but most middle-aged women have no symptoms during menopause; only 10-20% have some symptoms, and only about 5% have more significant symptoms.