What are menopause?

When womens periods stop.
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Menopause is when a woman reaches the end of her menstrual life. Her ovaries run out of eggs, she stops ovulating and then she stops her periods. She is no longer fertile.

This happens around age 50 to all women. Some women will experience symptoms with it such as hot flushes due to the changes in hormones. It can take a few years for a woman to complete menopause as everything in her body settles down.

Natural menopause is when a woman has not had a menstrual period for a full year. When menstruation has permanently ended without any kind of medical intervention, natural menopause has been reached. Menopause is a change that is a natural and normal occurrence.
In the United States, the average age of menopause is 51, with most women usually reaching natural menopause somewhere between 40 and 58 years of age. For some women, natural menopause has occurred as early as in their 30s and some have been in their 60s, though this is quite rare.
Typically, a good indicator of when a woman will reach menopause is to look at when a woman's mother and sisters experienced menopause. If a woman smokes or is a former smoker, menopause may occur up to two years earlier than might have been expected.

induced menopause

When menopause occurs due to a surgical procedure, such as the removal of a woman's ovaries or a medical intervention such as chemotherapy or pelvic radiation treatments, it is called induced menopause. When both of a woman's ovaries are surgically removed, she has had an induced menopause that is called a surgical menopause.

Induced menopause causes an abrupt end to estrogen production as opposed to the gradual diminishing of the ovarian hormone that occurs in natural menopause. Because of this, menopausal symptoms may be much more severe for women who have undergone an induced menopause. Thus, they may require more treatment than women who go through a natural menopause.

premature menopause

When natural or induced menopause occurs before a woman reaches the age of 40, she is considered to have undergone a premature menopause. Certain factors such as autoimmune processes, genetics or medical interventions may be the cause of the premature menopause. When premature menopause occurs, a woman is more likely to be at a risk for osteoporosis and heart disease. These are concerns that a woman should be aware of for the rest of her life.