My Girl-friend on Menopause

On reading my article on menopause, my Polish friend now living in USA sent me a detailed note of her views on the issue which I put here as supplement to article with my male views as female views on problems related to menopause. I have given just some editing touches to her note to me. I got her permission to publish her views as an article.

Of course, the views are hers but I fully concur with her on the subject. However, she may be contacted directly through the link above for her facebook profile, or I may be used as a media.

On the subject of menopause, there are a lot of false myths. The most damaging is that menopause is a disease that should be treated. And yet this state is inevitable, as the most natural process, it opens a new chapter in the life of women.
Menopause is the next stage of the life of every woman. Just as growing up and maturing - it concerns all of us.
Every woman, no matter how life runs, passes through the 5 basic stages of life:

1. adolescence
2. maturation
3. maturity, for many synonymous with motherhood
4. age menopause
5. senior age

Meanwhile, many women still refuse to accept that the transition period to menopause is natural. Sometimes, I wonder why this is so? Is it only for the worry for lack of fertility?
Many women entering the menopause are convinced that awaits them in a difficult time, expect hot flashes, rapid mood changes, health problems, etc. However, my long-term observation reaches to a very different conclusion – it only depends on us how we take this transition. Happy and fulfilled women undergo changes smoothly, while those with problems and those who expect menopausal disasters, actually suffer.
Menopause is a transitional stage in a woman's life when the ovaries produce estrogen and progesterone less, and less frequent becomes menstruation, stopping eventually altogether.

The most common symptoms are hot flashes and night sweats. Some hot flashes are easily tolerated, while others range from embarrassing to debilitating. Hot flashes and night sweats may last for 1 to 2 years after the last period.

Each of the ladies entering menopause, certainly meets with a troublesome feeling of hot flashes. This phenomenon is very characteristic of menopause and occurs most often after the completion of forty years of age.

Worse, yet less known, is catchment sweats. This painful ailment usually occurs at night, but not as a rule. This is why the phenomenon is so cumbersome. This is due to fluctuations in estrogen levels. Hot flashes reduce the amount of magnesium, that is responsible for fatigue and irritability in women during menopause.

Japanese woman do not know hot flashes and they much less suffer from symptoms typical of menopause. Why our Asian friends are better? If you know their "secret" you can alleviate the symptoms of menopause?

The phenomenon so well known to women in the U.S. and Europe, is unknown in Japan. Strictly speaking, the Japanese do not even have a word equivalent to our hot flashes. The reason seems to be quite clear - socio-cultural differences that differentiate women from these continents.

Scientists believe that diet plays an important role. As you know, the Japanese are eating more soy that contains a high concentration of phytoestrogens - so much recommended by gynecologists for women during menopause. In addition, their diet must also contain considerable amounts of vegetables, fruits, grains, fish, yogurt and vegetable oils, etc. This surely results into absence of menopause related problems in women from Japan, Mexico and Indonesia. Their secret lies precisely in this way of eating. Symptoms of vaginal atrophy associated with menopause, are also very common.

We know our grandmothers passed through menopause stage when nobody knew of hormone replacement therapy, and yet they remained, until the end of life, serene and full of energy. We may ask, how do we differ from them? Earlier lifestyles were closer to nature, closer to their selves than these are today. Today, we are on the run continuously, we work and we eat irregularly and, often, heavily processed foods. Once, I was surprised for a woman entering menopause just at the time of her youthful days. What do we do? We go to the doctor who prescribe hormones to us. We, without listening to our bodies, take pills, forgetting that each of us is uniquely created and has unique experiences of emotions. Each of us is psychologically different from others, but this difference is not considered by the physicians recommending pills to be taken.

Modern medicine diminishes classic feminine power, huge resources lie dormant in each one of us. We assume that experts know better than we ourselves do about what we need and leave on them the responsibility of our respective health. We forget that our bodies are wise enough to indicate to us their needs. An example might be cysts of the uterus, occurring in 60% of premenopausal women - they are the indications that we should make changes in our lifestyles. Their appearance indicates that there is an accumulation of too many ksenoestrogen’s - artificial hormones we receive through foods, in our bodies. Our bodies tell us to slow down, take care of ourselves, look at what we eat, and how we live, etc. The cysts in the breasts tell us about the lack of balance in love life. Such examples are many.

Hormone replacement therapy actually provides relief during menopause, but it must be remembered that each of us needs a different amount of hormones – for some, herbal preparations may be right while for others strong medication may suit.

Menopause is a time of change for the better. When entering a period of menopause, we begin to have beautiful dreams, thanks to increased hormone activity of FSL FH, that strengthens our faith in ourselves, increases our intuition and we feel a great surge of energy. It's a good time to expand the most important aspects of female power including biology, care about ourselves and relationships with others, our passions and goals, resourcefulness and adaptation to change.

We know a lot about biology - it is relatively easy to choose the appropriate form of HRT or change eating habits. It's harder to care for oneself - our lives teach us that others are more important and usually not enough attention is given to the self with lack of time and neglect of our passions. It is also worth to look at relationships with loved ones – problems in these seriously reflect on our health.

If we experience, during menopause period, any difficult situation like illness or death of parents, adult children leaving home, etc we must take them as natural outcomes of life and face them without fear.

There are many ways to deal with problems of menopause, but the best of all is individualized holistic therapy, which combines the valuable achievements of western medicine for endocrine, bone structure, the condition of the heart with the knowledge of the East - the use of supplements, herbs and helpful ways of breathing. We are strong and wise, we have an excellent feature of easy adaptability to change. We should use this feature, even when entering a new phase of life.