Dizziness in the menopause

What is dizziness in menopause?

The menopause (climacteric) describes the phase in which the hormone balance of the woman changes. Before the menopause, women are fertile; during the menopause, menstruation becomes increasingly irregular. From one year after the last menstrual period onwards, we speak of the so-called menopause.

The woman’s reproductive capacity is thus terminated. The hormonal changes during the menopause are accompanied by a variety of symptoms. In addition to the familiar heat waves, these typically include dizziness. The menopause occurs naturally between 45 and 60 years and usually lasts between five and ten years.

Why does dizziness often occur during menopause?

During the menopause, the fertility cycle of the woman changes. It is mainly the female sexual organs that are affected by these changes. Thus, the function of the ovaries decreases in the course of time.

During the menopause, there are fewer and fewer so-called follicles from which an egg cell can develop. Instead, there are more and more cycles in which no fertile egg cell is available. Since the ovaries are mainly responsible for the production of the sex hormone estrogen, the hormone is reduced during the menopause.

At the same time, the levels of the hormone gonadotropin and FSH are upregulated. Reflectorily, the concentration of the so-called inhibin decreases. In summary, the menopause leads to a massive change in the hormone balance of the woman, which can also throw other parts of the body out of balance.

Initially, these hormonal changes put the body as a whole and also the psyche into a state of stress. This brings hormonal and blood pressure fluctuations with it, the whole body has to re-coordinate itself and its messenger substances (the hormones). From this mixture of stress, blood pressure and hormone fluctuations, symptoms such as dizziness can quickly develop.

The menopause is a psychological burden for many women. In this phase, the woman’s fertile phase of life comes to an end and the hormone fluctuations quickly cause nervousness and irritability. The resulting stress can play an important role in the development of dizziness.

Besides purely organic causes, dizziness often has a large psychological component. In the menopause, in addition to the psychological stress, there is also the hormonal stress which literally “throws the body out of balance“. Dizziness is therefore a common symptom during the menopause.