Does
“Premenopause” Exist?
Yes! And It’s Called Peri Menopause
As your body makes
the transition from your reproductive years to menopause, you’ll
notice some subtle changes in your health, as well as some obvious
signs that menopause is on its way. The casual name for the time
before menopause is “premenopause,” but medically speaking,
the correct term is peri menopause or perimenopause. The prefix
“peri” means “around,” “about,”
or “near,” which is perfectly descriptive of the events
of premenopause. Peri menopause is the second stage in the
stages of menopause.
Peri menopause
or premenopause occurs anywhere from two to eight years before menopause,
plus one year after your final period. The symptoms of peri menopause
are caused by changing hormone levels in your body. Chiefly, your
reproductive hormones of estrogen and progesterone are rising and
falling at an uneven rate during premenopause, resulting in longer
or shorter menstrual cycles and possibly skipped periods. Other
symptoms of peri menopause include:
- Menopause
hot flashes
- Difficulty sleeping
- Mood swings
- Urinary infections and urinary
urgency
- Decreased fertility
- Bone loss
- Unhealthy cholesterol levels
- Breast tenderness
- Fatigue
Premenopause or
peri menopause is a completely natural transition as your body prepares
for a new phase of your life. To ease the symptoms of peri menopause,
many women concentrate on making healthy lifestyle choices as a
treatment of menopause.
These choices include sticking to a healthy diet, getting regular
exercise, staying at a healthy weight, taking supplements, meditation
and yoga for stress, drinking plenty of water, and quitting smoking.
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