Many women experience menopausal joint pain symptoms. Medical experts have researched the connection between hormonal changes and this kind of pain.

 

Some women experience joint and muscle pain, mouth discomfort, headaches and some even report heart palpitations. Interestingly, women who suffer tension headaches, abdominal, or facial pain found their symptoms lessened after menopause. Scientists today feel there may indeed be a link between estrogen, hormone levels including their fluctuations and this phenomenon

 

Menopause and Joint Pain: Symptoms of Menopause

 

Menopause occurs when a women stops ovulating and her period ceases. Most women reach menopause between 45 and 55 years, with an average age of about 50. However, about 1% reaches it before the age of 40, known as premature menopause or premature ovarian failure.

 

The most apparent changes recorded are in connection with menstrual cycle changes, changes in the bleeding pattern, hot flashes, sweating and urinary problems, such as, incontinence or increased frequency of urination. Dry vagina, mood changes, muscular weakness, joint pains and weight changes are all symptoms of menopause and can cause a great deal of pain as well as general feelings of discomfort in different parts of the body.

 

Menopause and Irritability: The Risks

 

Menopause is a very important time in a woman’s life and all women who live past 40 must withstand the worst of this condition. A woman’s body goes through many changes that can affect her social life, her feelings about herself and her functioning at work. In the past, many misconceptions and myths surrounded menopause but this perception has changed. Now, menopause is accepted as a natural step in the process of aging.

 

Contrary to the old-fashioned view that life is all downhill after menopause, many women today realize that the years after menopause offer new discoveries and fresh challenges. Modern medical advances have resulted in a wide range of health care choices, especially for joint pain and bone deficiency problems.

 

These can enhance quality of life during menopause and the decades that follow. It is vital for women to know that menopause itself carries no serious health risks. However, the chance for heart disease and osteoporosis (thinning of the bone due to the inability of the body to produce bone tissue) rises after menopause. Understanding menopause and the range of treatment options can help women make better health decisions.

 

Menopause and Irritability: Causes and Symptoms

 

Research has shown that a quarter of women have no problems while going through menopause, while half of the number will have some problems and the remaining quarter of them will have considerable problems including joint pain.

 

These are usually associated with osteoporosis and arthritis, which results in weakening of the bones and the degeneration of the cartilage between the joints that can fracture easily following a fall.

 

Fluctuating estrogen levels and poor estrogen clearance, can affect how your joints feel. It stands to reason that some women would also have joint pains in response to the hormone fluctuations so common in perimenopause. It’s important to have yourself checked by your primary care physician for either osteoporosis or arthritis.

 

Menopause and Irritability: Treatment

 

There are also medications and exercises you can get that will overcome the severest of joint pains related to menopause. Some of these treatments include the use of steroids so it is critical to make this kind of decision in conjunction with your own doctor.

 

It’s also prudent to check for the possibility of side effects from using these drugs and get a second opinion before embarking on a long-term treatment.



Thanks to Cathy Taylor for contributing this article to our Menopause blog:

Post Menopausal Osteoporosis

You’re driving to work on a cool morning listening to your stereo when all of a sudden you feel intense heat. You know that you don’t have a fever - you were feeling great just a minute ago. And yet there is no denying the severe heat you feel inside your body. The sudden feeling of severe warmth is unexplainable. That’s when you realize that what you are feeling are hot flash symptoms.

Hot flashes are a condition typically present during menopause, which can occur for several years before and after you cease menstrual bleeding. Hot flash symptoms are primarily caused by hormonal changes. Although in some cases, hot flashes can occur in people who have a rigorous lifestyle or those who are taking certain medications.

Here are the most common hot flash symptoms:

1. Sudden redness of the skin, commonly noticeable on the face and the upper body.

2. Intense heat, despite the coolness within your environment. This feeling is different than heat from outside the body - it feels like it comes from within. The heat can vary between women, and even with hot flash episodes. It may be gone after a few moments and then recur a few minutes later.

3. Excessive sweating may be felt when you experience hot flash symptoms. This is not the ordinary sweating common with heavy exercise. Instead of hot sweats, you may go through cold sweats. This is especially common during the night, when you may experience what are usually called “night sweats.”

4. Night sweats will often cause difficulty in getting a good night’s sleep.

Other accompanying hot flash symptoms apart from the above are:

1. Heart Palpitations

2. Nausea

3. Dizziness

4. Anxiety

5. Headaches

6. Shortness of Breath

After experiencing redness of the face and upper body, a feeling of severe and unexplainable hotness, as well as discomfort, is almost certainly a hot flash when all of those symptoms end with a chill. Experts say that a “chill” is often the culmination of a hot flash.

Hot flash symptoms vary from one person to another. To get an accurate picture of your menopausal symptoms and their severity, it is a good idea to keep a diary. You can record in your diary the times, length, and severity of each symptom as it occurs.

Fortunately, most hot flash symptoms can be treated quite easily with a combination of lifestyle changes and herbal medications. A first line of defense is to eliminate spicy foods, alcohol, coffee, and smoking. Make sure you are eating a healthy diet with plenty of fruits and fresh vegetables. Increase your exercise and practice deep breathing. Just these steps alone will often greatly reduce hot flash symptoms.

If you are still suffering symptoms, try one of the many herbal remedies for hot flashes that are readily available at most health food stores. Black Cohosh and Evening Primrose Oil are herbs that are very effective in reducing hot flash symptoms. Finally, consult with your doctor for additional suggestions and help in navigating your journey through menopause.



Thanks to Linda Bruton for contributing this article to our Menopause blog:

Alternative Hormone Treatment

Menopause is one of the worst times in a woman’s life. A woman’s body is going through so many hormonal changes such as the estrogen and progesterone levels are completely imbalanced. This can cause many symptoms for women if not treated properly. Some of the symptoms include:

? Painful cramps

? Hot flushes

? Achy and sore breasts

? Lower back and abdomen pain

? An extremely short fuse that causes you snap at anything that breathes

If you are suffering from one of the following or all of the following you are experiencing menopause symptoms. These need to be treated right away not only to relieve you of these symptoms but also to prevent massive bone loss. Most women lose up to 25% of their entire bone mass due to menopause. That is horrible and just not fair.

Luckily, there is a drug out there called natural progesterone and the effects of low progesterone doses work wonders on your body. This is an all NATURAL treatment that completely eliminates the effects of menopause and PMS symptoms while slowing down the progression of menopause. You will see a substantial difference in the loss of bone mass from someone taking natural progesterone and someone not taking it at all. The worst thing you can do is depriving yourself of such a wonderful all natural cure. The reason why it works is that when a woman goes through menopause there is a natural imbalance of progesterone and estrogen levels. When you take natural progesterone treatments you are eliminating this progesterone deficiency.

The effects of progesterone work wonders. There is good news of restoring balance and normality to your life, even if you have suffered from these symptoms for years. There is no other drug on the market that has these types of effects. There are no harmful side effects using progesterone due to the fact that it is all natural.

Where does progesterone come from?

Progesterone is derived from an all natural plant and than turned into progesterone cream for easy use. Most women apply this cream to their cheeks, anywhere on body, or buttocks. The cream works by going through your skin than directly into your bloodstream for immediate relief and effect. I started using progesterone cream at the first symptoms of menopause. Let me just tell you one thing, it was the best thing I could have ever done for myself! My cramps, insomnia, weight gain, etc. where gone the next day! It took about a week to see my weight going back to normal but my cramps and inability to sleep were gone! I was finally able to live a healthy life where menopause wasn’t the only thing I worried about. Most people do not know about the benefits of progesterone so by reading this article you can help spread the benefits to someone severely suffering from menopause symptoms. Again, I wish you the best of luck and please don’t let menopause control and ruin your life!



Thanks to Jean M. for contributing this article to our Menopause blog:

Making Money Online

Menopause is only one of several stages in the reproductive life of a woman. Menopause, or the permanent end of menstruation and sterility, is a natural biological process, not a medical illness. Menopause is simply the name given to the last menstrual period. Menopause before the age of 40 is termed ‘early menopause. Hormonal changes cause the physical symptoms of menopause, but mistaken beliefs about the menopausal transition are partly to blame for the emotional ones. The menstrual blood is partly blood and partly tissue from inside the uterus, or womb. It passes out of the body through the vagina. Periods usually start around age 12 and continue until menopause, at about age 51. Premenstrual syndrome, or PMS, is a group of symptoms that start before the period. Approximately 1 percent of women experience menopause before age 40.

Menopause may result from premature ovarian failure. Menopausal women tend to exercise less than other women, which can lead to weight gain. For most women, increases and shifts in weight begin during perimenopause — the years leading up to menopause. Weight gain can also have serious implications for your health. These factors also put you at increased risk of heart disease and stroke. The most effective approach to reversing weight gain after menopause included is aerobic exercise boosts your metabolism and helps you burn fat. Strength training exercises increase muscle mass, boost your metabolism and strengthen your bones. Eating large amounts of high-fat foods adds excess calories, which can lead to weight gain and obesity. Limit fat to 20 percent to 35 percent of your daily calories. The causes of weight gain during menopause can be divided into psychological and physical.

Psychological aren’t as common as physical; in fact, it’s normally accepted that in most women, physical causes are responsible for weight gain during menopause.Psychological causes for menopause weight gain: Anxiety and other forms of emotional daily stress, overwork and fatigue can cause weight gain during menopause. Physical causes for menopause weight gain: The most probable cause for Weight gain during menopause is hormonal imbalance. Healthy life helps to control menopause weight gain. Menopause weight gain can be controlled with alternative medicine. Testosterone helps your body to create lean muscle mass out of the calories that you take in. Avoid crash diets. Starvation will only cause your metabolism to slow down, causing you to gain more weight later on. Menopausal women tend to exercise less than other women, which can lead to weight gain.



Thanks to Juliet Cohen for contributing this article to our Menopause blog:

Have you claimed your Genesis site?

The most common menopausal symptom for most women is also the most uncomfortable. Women who would otherwise hardly notice the transition into menopause definitely notice hot flashes! The medical treatment that was usually suggested for hot flashes in the past was hormone replacement therapy. While HRT can be very effective in alleviating the symptoms it can also increase your risk of breast cancer and stroke. It is no wonder that so many women are using herbal remedies for hot flashes.

The exact cause of hot flashes is unclear, but hormonal changes and imbalances are thought to be the main reason. Medical professionals consider hot flashes as an estrogen deficiency that can be triggered by stimulants, such as spicy foods (ginger, cayenne, pepper), acidic foods (tomatoes, citrus, pickles), hot drinks, alcoholic drinks, caffeine (chocolate, coffee, cola, black tea), white sugar, stress, hot weather, saturated or hydrogenated fats (margarine, meat), saunas and hot tubs, marijuana or tobacco, intense exercise, and anger. For many women, just eliminating that list of triggers plus using herbal remedies for hot flashes will bring immediate relief.

Hot flashes may last for a few minutes or even up to an hour. They may be mild or very severe. Every woman will experience them a little differently. Hot flashes which occur at night are called night sweats. They can be accompanied with anxiety and nightmares. Not all women experience hot flashes and fewer experience night sweats. However, many women experience both situations when they are going through menopause.

Exercise is a good way of decreasing hot flashes because it decreases the amount of FSH and LH hormone circulation by toning and nourishing the hypothalamus and raising endorphin levels.

Herbal remedies for hot flashes include plants that have the ability to cool the body, such as chickweed, violet, and elder; plants which increase and nourish oxygen utilization of the liver, such as dandelion, dong quai, polygonum multiflorum,, and yellow duck; and plants which contains high phytosterols, most notably black cohosh.

These are some of the most used herbal remedies for hot flashes:

1. Dong quai relaxes and contracts the uterine muscles. Its effect is not estrogenic, which is the main reason for dong quai’s effectiveness. It treats hot flashes by stabilizing the blood vessels.

2. Chaste berry or vitex affects the functions of the pituitary and regulates dizziness and hot flashes. Its beneficial effects are altering the secretion of FSH and LH hormones during menopause. It lowers the levels of estrogen while increasing progesterone levels, which keep vaginal walls and bones strong.

3. Black cohosh was used widely by Native Americans and later by the American colonists for relieving menopause and menstrual cramps. Clinical studies have revealed that black cohosh extract relieves hot flashes, vaginal atrophy, and depression.

4. Motherwort lessens the frequency, duration and severity of hot flashes. It relieves anxiety, insomnia, and stress. Frequent usage will produce the best results.

5. Licorice root is historically used for treating various female disorders. It also has been used effectively in treating asthma and infections of the respiratory tract. It also decreases estrogen and increases progesterone.

6. Essential oils of thyme or basil alleviate hot flashes when utilized in baths, foot rubs, when inhaled, or combined with massage oils.

These herbal remedies for hot flashes - when combined with eliminating common triggers - can greatly reduce menopausal symptoms in most women.



Thanks to Linda Bruton for contributing this article to our Menopause blog:

Supplements For Menopause