Fundamentals of perimenopause

NUVANTA Sdn Bhd recently organised a workshop called "Feminini-Tea" to promote awareness about the vital realities and implications of perimenopause. These are some important pointers.
TIME OF TRANSITION
Women between 40 and 56, though still menstruating, may experience some totally new and unsettling bodily changes. These "symptoms" include physical, mental and emotional changes that make one feel "unfeminine" such as longer or shorter, heavier or lighter menstrual cycles, even "skipped" periods, weight gain, skin dryness and pigmentation, hair loss, osteoporosis, overactive bladder and stress incontinence, hot flushes, insomnia, unexplained fatigue, tender breasts, migraines, decreased libido and vaginal dryness. "Not every woman will experience the same symptoms to the same degree," said consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist DrWong KimLei, a speaker at the workshop. Perimenopause is a facet many women overlook during their lives. It is a time of natural transition that women experience when their estrogen levels start fluctuating until the time she reaches full menopause. Women can experience the impact of perimenopause in harsher ways as it does not just affects one's menstrual cycle. Thus, the workshop themed "Embracing Feminity" to educate the fairer sex on this subject whichmany feel embarrassed to discuss. "I encourage women to take better care of themselves and prepare for the best years. If we begin paying attention to the signs and signals our body is giving us, we will be better equipped to deal with the demands when the time comes," Wong said.
VITAL GUIDELINES
•Menopause is defined as a time when a woman has not had her period for 12 consecutive months.
• Perimenopause is the time "around menopause", typically up to 10 years before or a year after the last period.
• Perimenopause is a time of significant change that the body goes through. Typically, women begin their transition into perimenopause around the ages of between 40 and 56.
• The perimenopausal prelude can be more troubling than actually hitting menopause itself.
• Symptoms, struggles and difficulties attributed to perimenopause are universal as the woman's body goes through inevitable physical, physiological and emotional change.
• Perimenopause is a time when estrogen levels fluctuate, rising and falling erratically, apart from the decrease in progesterone. It is a hormonal driven affair, which affects more than 400 different functions in women. It is a time of hormonal imbalance.
• Other than feeling "unfeminine", some women experience erratic behaviour and mood swings that are sometimes expressed as out of proportion anger and sadness, depression, irritability, memory slips, poor concentration etc.
• Perimenopausal depression leads to a 50% increase in cardiovascular mortality.
MATURING GRACEFULLY
"Nature intended us to go through hormonal transitions but it is not natural to suffer with unbearable or even uncomfortable health concerns. The important thing is to recognise that symptoms, at any age, are the body's way of telling us that it is not getting the support it needs. Remember that we are not made up to be a super-machine … our body does not give out signals without a good reason," shared pharmacist Datin Swanee Teh at the workshop. Life expectancy for women today has increased to 80 years. If a woman begins her journey into menopause and experiences the symptoms of perimenopause at the average age of 45 to 50 … that is a long time for one to be "in transition". It works out that a woman will spend more than 1/3 of her life in postmenopausal stage. Other than smart anger channeling, physical exercise, creative involvement, cooling off measures and anti-anger diets to help better manage anger and stress, check the Nuvanta company website for other available alternatives. Men play an important role in supporting their women (wives, mothers, sisters, female partners and friends). This is the time in a woman's life when she would most need her "man" to be supportive and understanding in what she is going through.