The Last Period. Period.
I bet you $1,000 you don’t know what menopause is.

No, really.

You read a lot about menopause and perimenopause, sure; and probably began experiencing symptoms several months ago. And no doubt you talked a lot with other women, and got a hint about a certain bioidentical hormone doctor in Aspen or whatever out there (“a bio what??”). Yet, I still believe you don’t know the meaning of the term menopause and that nobody ever explained to you why your clothes seem to shrink in the wardrobe.

Menopause IS NOT:

•    the stage following your last period
•    a condition after a whole year without menstruation
•    a hormone deficiency
•    a period characterized by hot flashes and mood swings

So, what is menopause? Give up?

From Menarche to “Flasharche”
Menopause is a woman’s last period. Period.

On average, this occurs when a woman celebrates her 51st birthday. However, to determine when the menopause happened, she has to experience no periods during 12 consecutive months. In other words, she realizes she had her menopause a year later.

The word has a Greek origin (menos, month; pausis, cessation) by contrast to the first menstruation, the menarche (also from Greek: arkhe, beginning).

Many changes happen in the body around the crucial day of the last period. Essentially, your body considers that your reproductive days are no longer necessary but fat is welcome.

One or two years before such day, your body enters the perimenopause stage (peri, prefix for about, around or surrounding), also known as the climacteric phase. That’s when hot flashes begin.

Then, a year after the menopause day, you enter the post-menopause phase—those who say there’s no such a state as a post-menopause are, from an etymological viewpoint, wrong—. Since menopause refers to a specific day not a prolonged condition, a post-menopause time obviously follows.

From Flashes to Fat
Fat cells produce and store a hormone, estrone, a form of estrogen. The ovaries produce another variety of estrogen, estradiol. This hormone decreases at a dramatic rate around menopause, because the ovaries ignore another hormone that carries orders to produce estradiol. Hormones serve as mailmen, and affect almost every cell in the body when delivering or failing to deliver the information.

Some organs, however, are more receptive than others to certain hormones, much in the same way as your ears perceive sounds but ignore smells. When the ovaries stop obeying orders, your body cells crave estrogen. And where can they find it? Fat cells, of course! Your belly and hips stored another kind of estrogen, but estrogen at least.

To state it in other words, let’s say that your body needs fat now. Thus, you feel hungry; ergo, you eat. The larger the fat cells, the more estrogen they can produce and store.

To Lose Weight, Eat more often
If you wish to prevent weight gain, eat more often. Yes, more often. Eat small meals and give the body what it needs: milk, cereals, fruits and vegetables. At all costs, avoid dieting or starving; your body will react to protect its fat cells to put a stop to estrogen decreases… storing more fat.

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention our Bio-Identical Hormone Therapy blog as the original source).

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.