The symptoms
About one third of women experience no symptoms at all during menopause. Another third suffer from mild symptoms, while the last third are severely affected by the symptoms. Common symptoms are headaches, hot flashes, sweating and dizziness.
In addition, there may be other complaints such as anxiety and irritability. Mood swings during the menopause are also common. These can also manifest themselves in a depressed mood.
In addition, the menopause and nightly hot flashes and sweats can cause sleep disturbances. Other possible complaints are joint and muscle pain or dryness of the mucous membranes. Sometimes urinary problems can also occur.
The mucous membrane in the urogenital tract can also change. The lack of oestrogen changes the bacterial colonization in the vagina and the mucous membrane becomes drier. The risk of infection increases.
The urinary tract can also be affected. In contrast to the other symptoms, these changes do not regress. The symptoms in the menopause?with increasing age and the menopause the hair thins out.
The possible causes are numerous. Among other things, the cause can be menopausal hormonal changes. For example, an imbalance in male and female sex hormones is possible due to the drop in estrogen.
The resulting imbalance can cause both hair loss and increased hair growth elsewhere (e.g. on the face). Unfortunately, not much can be done about it. If hormone therapy is taken for other reasons, it can be adjusted to positively influence the imbalance.
Breast pain during menopause varies greatly from person to person.Breast pain can also be very different in nature – depending on the hormones, although the exact relationship between hormones and breast pain has not yet been conclusively clarified. Some women suffer from severe pain, as any touching of the breast is extremely unpleasant. Sometimes there is a feeling of tension and in other cases a pulling in the breast.
Many women suffer from breast pain already during their cycle. Due to the fluctuating hormone levels during the cycle, this also occurs in young women. However, the breast also changes during the course of a woman’s life due to puberty and pregnancy and the associated hormonal changes.
During the menopause, small nodules or hardening of the breast can result from changes in the tissue. These are not dangerous at first. However, clarification and monitoring by a gynecologist is important in order to detect and treat possible malignant growths in time.
Hot flushes are a classic symptom of menopause, from which many women suffer. Hot flushes often occur in combination with sweating. Hot flushes often begin with a feeling of pressure in the head, after which they spread throughout the body.
In addition, the affected women blush and the heart beats faster. The hot flashes last from half a minute to several minutes. In many cases, this is followed by a sweating outbreak.
How often a woman suffers from hot flashes varies greatly from one individual to another. However, more than two thirds of menopausal women suffer from occasional hot flashes. The exact cause has not yet been scientifically explained.
Joint pain during menopause is more common than is generally assumed. Knees, neck, back, hands, shoulders and hips are particularly affected. In addition to pain, stiffness or swelling of the joints can also occur.
There may also be muscle pain. However, joint pain is not counted among the typical menopausal symptoms. The connections between the two are not stable enough for this.
However, there are indications that the lower oestrogen level has a negative effect on the joints. Apart from this, joint complaints generally increase with age. If the pain and impairments are severe, a doctor should be consulted for clarification.
The joint complaints can be caused by other diseases, such as rheumatism or arthrosis. In this case other treatment options are available. Due to the lower estrogen level, the distribution of fat changes and the abdominal fat increases.
There is also a decrease in muscle mass. Weight gain in old age has even more reasons than menopause. From the age of 25 onwards, the energy requirement decreases continuously.
In addition, physical activity also decreases. The fact that the excess fat accumulates around the stomach of all places is very unfavorable. This is because abdominal fat in particular is associated with high blood pressure and increasing insulin resistance, which can lead to diabetes mellitus.
In view of these negative consequences, it is important to pay attention to body weight during and after menopause. In this way, risk factors for age-typical diseases such as diabetes mellitus or cardiovascular diseases can be minimized. A balanced, healthy lifestyle with sufficient physical activity is recommended.
Sweating is one of the typical symptoms of the menopause. Sweating in particular occurs more frequently during the menopause in conjunction with hot flushes. After a hot flush with sweating, a chill is often experienced.
Some women also sweat more at night. Hot flushes also tend to occur at night, so that sleep disturbances are also common during the menopause. Not only during pregnancy do women suffer from nausea due to the hormonal changes.
Nausea can also occur during the menopause. As in pregnancy, the nausea is more pronounced in the morning. In an emergency, drugs can be taken to treat the nausea.
Many women suffer from swollen legs, especially as they get older. But swollen legs can also occur in younger years. The reason for this is water retention.
Many women already know this from pregnancy. Due to the hormonal changes, water retention (edema) can occur more frequently during the menopause. But edema can also occur independently of the menopause.The cause is a weakness of the veins and lymphatic vessels, which are responsible for the return transport to the heart. Especially women are more susceptible to vein weakness than men. Compression stockings, for example, help to support the veins in transporting blood back to the heart.
