As often as a woman might complain about having to deal with a monthly menstrual cycle, that same woman is most definitely not looking forward to going through menopause. Just about every woman has a hard time going through menopause. In a lot of ways it can be compared to having a second puberty but in this case the woman is very aware of her menopause symptoms as well as the affect her symptoms have on the people who are in her life. It’s important that each person understands the different symptoms of menopause so that they can help the women they know work through the difficult transition. Here are some symptoms to keep an eye out for if your wife, mother, girlfriend or daughter is around the age that menopause usually starts.

Knew early menopause usually means that a woman experiences the symptoms of menopause before the average age of 47 and early menopause can start as young as the 20′s, 30′s, 40′s.

This time before menopause is called perimenopause real and is initiated by fluctuating hormone levels. Typically perimenopause can begin in the late 30th or early 40th. Often when people talk about menopause, they are actually talking about perimenopause since this is the first time you begin to notice symptoms of early menopause such as hot flashes, night sweats, irregular periods and mood swings.

Menopause is the stage in a woman’s life when the menstrual cycle stops. This is not a disease; rather it is a natural process in a woman’s life. However, the stage when a woman has her menopause could be a very painful and mentally debilitating stage. There could be several complications.

From an Ayurvedic point of view, menses is the flow of excess pitta from the woman’s body. Menses is called as Raja in Ayurveda. For this reason, the stoppage of the menses flow permanently, i.e. menopause is called as Raja Nivrutti, which literally means retirement of menses.

Menopause is a culmination of all the three doshas of the woman’s body. The menses themselves are pitta, while the woman may gain in her weight during this time. This indicates a kapha imbalance. Since the woman may become moody and even lose her sleep during menopause, there is a strong indication of the vata dosha at play also.

Did you know that you start getting pre menopause symptoms years before you are technically menopausal? The hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings, and insomnia start, on average, five to seven years before a woman is menopausal, which means that she hasn’t had a period in twelve consecutive months. When you start having menopause symptoms, your first reaction might be to run to hormone replacement therapy, but this approach has actually been shown to have some serious negative effects over the long term. Instead, you should turn to a natural symptom alleviator: exercise.

Problems in Menopause

Even though menopause is a totally natural process, it does increase women’s risk of certain conditions. Among them are heart disease, osteoporosis, excessive weight gain, and diabetes. Interestingly enough, all of these conditions can, in part, be prevented by exercise. Heart disease and diabetes are intrinsically related to weight gain, which can obviously be prevented through exercise. Even osteoporosis can be prevented in part by weight-bearing exercise such as jogging, walking, and weight lifting, which causes the bones to build themselves up naturally.

Post menopause symptoms are a catch word for today’s society. There are informational posts online, a huge health supplement industry, medications, and psychiatric counseling to cope with this problem. Well, some women buy into all this, and some pick and choose, and some go on with their life and ignore the whole hoopla.

Just as infants teethe, teens have acne, and adults have stress, older people (not just women) have such things as loss of energy, muscle tone and firmness, and sex drive. Bone mineral loss may accelerate, insomnia may worsen, and mood swings may become common. So cope, don’t panic.

It is the feeling that old age is a ‘decline’ that triggers the urge to stay young at all costs. Actually the later years of life can be the best. There are ninety-some year old folks volunteering in retirement and nursing homes, taking music and church and fun activities to the ones inside.