What is the Menopause?
All women will go through the menopause. The average age at which the menopause occurs is 51, and is usually after the age of 45. However, if you have an operation to remove your ovaries (a hysterectomy) you will experience menopausal symptoms almost immediately.
From puberty, your ovaries release an egg approximately every month and also produce two important hormones - estrogen and progestogen. The ovaries contain a certain number of eggs at birth, and when these are all used up, less estrogen and progestogen are produced. This causes your periods to become irregular and eventually stop, and as a result you may experience menopausal symptoms.
The word ‘menopause’ literally means your last menstrual period, however this term is often used to describe the years around the time of the menopause when you may experience symptoms. The terms used to describe the different phases leading up to, during and after the menopause are:
- Premenopause: the time before any symptoms of the menopause occur
- Perimenopause: the time before the menopause, during which the production of hormones such as estrogen and progestogen reduces or becomes more irregular
- Postmenopause: the time in a woman’s life after the menopause