Synonyms
Climacteric, Climacterium, Climax, Climacter
- Joint complaints (especially arthrosis)
- Muscle complaints
- Palpitations
- Sweating
- Hot flashes
- Urinary tract complaints
- Bladder weakness
- Digestive disorders
- Performance degradation
- Hair Loss
- Dryness of the mucous membranes and
- Other skin changes
But also psychological changes such as sleep disorders, irritability, mood swings and nervousness are part of it. Especially the time of the menopause is a time with many changes for the woman, also in her everyday life, and requires a new orientation from her. This includes the own body awareness, but is also to a large extent influenced by the social environment of the woman and her living conditions.
If a woman experiences rejection and devaluation during her menopause, especially through the loss of her reproductive ability, the woman’s symptoms demonstrably increase. All physical and psychological symptoms can be summarized under the term climacteric syndrome. The symptoms of menopause that occur are divided into three groups according to their temporal effects on the body.
The short-term effects include hot flushes and sleep disturbances, the medium-term effects include skin changes and psychological phenomena, and the long-term physical effects are bone loss (osteoporosis) and hardening of arteries (atherosclerosis). Especially the bone loss due to the estrogen deficiency very often leads to changes in the spinal column without being influenced, which leads to a reduction in body size as well as to movement restrictions and the so-called widow’s hump. Back pain and joint pain lead to a reduction in performance and the risk of bone fractures also increases significantly.
The above mentioned regression of the mucous membrane after menopause, especially in the area of the vagina, leads to a loss of elasticity of the tissue. Therefore, pain can often occur during sexual intercourse, which is called dyspareunia. Menopause and the loss of menstruation also have positive effects for a woman.
Thus the otherwise existing complaints before and during a menstrual cycle disappear. The occurrence of small benign tumors in the uterine muscle layer, so-called myomas, also decreases significantly.
