Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)

Menopause is actually a condition commonly happening to women over fifty. Its symptoms include night sweats and hot flushes and can cause many troubles to women and be very irritating. That’s why most women are looking forward to finding the best effective treatment for the symptoms. Of course, you may consult with a doctor and use drugs and other treatments he prescribed, but if you are looking for gaining symptom relief in a natural way, it’s better to learn about some herbs that can help ease menopause.

Dong Quai

Dong Quai plant is a herbal menopause cure that has been widely used for many centuries by Chinese women. It’s believed to be a great herbal treatment for such menopause side effects as night sweats, sleep disorder, and many others.

Black Cohosh

Black Cohosh is another herb that is considered to be one of the most effective remedies for menopause. This plant can treat plenty of the menopause symptoms, including itching and dryness of the vagina, insomnia, night sweats, and so on. This herb is able to really provide you overall relief from menopause symptoms, so try taking it if you got menopausal signs and symptoms.

Ginseng

One more herb able to fight the symptoms of menopause is Ginseng. In fact, this herb is considered as a plant able to give people energy boosts, but lots of health experts are sure that Ginseng can also be used to ease menopause symptoms. If you want to fight menopause side effects, take Ginseng tea or ginseng supplements every day to get rid of hot flashes and insomnia.

St. John’s Wort

The plant of St. John’s Wort is a necessary addition to the list of must-try remedies for menopause, particularly if you are suffering from depression that often comes with the other symptoms of menopause. St. John’s Wort plant can effectively improve your mood. Besides, it’s efficient in fighting hot flashes and sleep disorders. The best effect is achieved by combining St. John’s Wort treatment with the Black Cohosh herb.

Wild Yam

Next plant is Wild Yam. This one helps not only gain relief from the menopause symptoms, but is also widely used for hormone therapy purposes. If you are curious how it can provide you menopause symptom relief, the answer is easy. Wild yam stabilizes all the hormonal changes happening in your body during the stage of menopause. That’s why women taking this herb regularly enough notice a reduction in menopause symptoms.

All the herbs described in this article are definitely capable of helping you experience menopause symptom relief using natural treatments. Herbs can be the best solution to your problem of menopause if you are already tired of suffering from various symptoms it brings, like mood swings, insomnia, and night sweats.

One of the most popular treatments of menopause symptoms is estrogen therapy. One of its side effects occurring in big number of cases is weight gain. As the reason of weight increase is estrogen that is required for relieving menopausal symptoms, it is impossible to stop taking it and reduce the weight fast. In this case the regulation of body weight requires much knowledge and time.

If the problem of excessive weight becomes urgent, the best way of its solution is consulting a doctor for prescription of non-estrogen therapy for menopause treatment. In such a way you will be able to fight hormone-related weight gain and come to norm with diet and lifestyle correction. According to modern variety of medications it is fully possible to select the treatment that suits your body with minimum side effects.

Scientists have different opinions
The controversial results of various studies do not lead to one certain conclusion of estrogen influence on body weight. Some of them say that there is definite connection between hormone concentration and the weight increase, while other connect weight gain to age changes. In the age around 40 human body gain weight more intensively. To prevent obesity or unwanted kilos it is better to reduce food intake and use physical exercises.

It is fully possible to control your body weight using the combination of diet + physical training + non-estrogen treatment. You can even improve your body shape during menopause paying more attention on your appearance. The reaction on hormones is very individual, but it is one common effect occurring during the course of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) – most of women gain extra weight.

The effect of HRT
Hormone replacement therapy results in extra weight for most of women, but each case is very individual. Some women can manage with weight loss easily, using little physical exercises and limitations in diet, while other need strict long-term diet and everyday exhausting training. For better results it is necessary to study your own type of body, habits in lifestyle and diet to see what is preferable to change. Using correct changes it is possible to gain great results in fight again excess weight.

When using hormone replacement therapy the concentration of estrogen in the body is constantly increased that lead to intensification of weight gain. If it is impossible to refuse from HRT, the only solution is to reduce its dosing.

In addition to HRT limitation it is highly recommended to follow the balanced diet and select the type of physical exercises that will help to gain the best body shape. By the way, such changes of the lifestyle will help not only to control body shape but also to relieve other hormone-related symptoms of menopause and its therapy.

Don’t think that you are lonely with your body weight problem: millions of women worldwide experience the same impact to their shape from hormone replacement therapy. Obesity will never become your problem if you will do exercises, follow diet and pay more attention on this problem.

If you are afraid that your body weight became out of control, it is better to consult a physician to define whether it is the side effect of HRT and it is normal or it was caused by other disorders. Anyway there is a therapy that will help you to come to norm.

Loss of sexual desire is one of the most harmful symptoms of menopause, as it touches not only the physiological sphere, but has a great impact on relationship. Loss of libido is a common menopause ‘side effect’ that covers about 20 – 40 % or all women at the period of menopause. It is important to understand that such changes usually have complex reasons, like hormonal imbalance, psychological disorders and age-related changes.

If you want to manage with loss of libido, as well as other menopause symptoms, you should study the causes and potential remedies of this disorder. By understanding its origin you will be able to find appropriate solution to remove the source of the problem and return to a stable healthy lifestyle.

Loss of Libido in Details
Loss of libido is a complex disorder that relies on various psychological, physical and hormonal reasons. It has highly individual character, different for each woman.

Traditionally the term ‘libido’ is associated with sexual desire, describing the level of person’s sexual activity. In medical sense loss of libido is a disorder displaying in reduce of interest to sexual activity, lack of desire to have sex.

Women experiencing libido loss admit that they become less sensitive to sexual caress, they are not aroused or it takes too long to get aroused during sexual contact. Also they have no energy for sex, they lose the feeling of their own sexuality. When having sex, women with loss of libido experience vaginal dryness and painful feelings during intercourse.

Some women during menopause become unable to achieve orgasm or even arouse enough for sex. These symptoms are also associated with loss of libido, although such women didn’t lose the physiological ability to have sex. These symptoms mostly caused by hormonal imbalance and psychological problems.

Reasons of Loss of Libido
Loss of libido is one of menopause symptoms that occur mostly because of hormonal changes in female organism. Besides endocrine disorders, libido is very sensitive to various psychological problems, like stresses and conflicts, especially if they are caused by sexual partner.

Hormonal Aspects of Loss of Libido
As was said before, hormones are the root source of libido changes in female body. The imbalance of three main hormones levels can reduce the desire to have sex and ability to get sexual satisfaction.

Estrogen
Estrogen is a female hormone responsible for female sexual sensitivity and influencing on the process of vaginal lubrication output. It influences greatly on the normal state of vaginal tissue.

During menopause, female body produces less natural estrogen. As a result, it causes various unwanted symptoms like night sweats, vaginal dryness, irregular menstruation, and of course it has much impact on libido.

Progesterone
Progesterone hormone is acting in female organism in pair with estrogen. Any imbalance between these two hormones leads to various health problems, like irregular menstruation, lack of energy, constant tiredness. All these effects may cause loss of libido.

Androgens/ Testosterone
Androgens are naturally produced in less concentration within the age-related changes. The balance between estrogen and estrogen hormones (like testosterone) is very important to female organism, as only the normal levels of all hormones provide stable operation of reproductive, immune and circulatory systems. Less testosterone in female body can also mean the decreased sexual desires and discomfort during the sex.

Besides hormonal reasons, there are some other causes of loss of libido that also deserve attention if you want to get rid of this problem. There is a list of potential non-hormonal reasons of loss of libido.

What Else May Cause Loss of Libido?

For better convenience alternative causes are divided into three groups: physical, emotional and relational.

Physical causes include the following:
-Various pains during the sex

-Sexual dysfunction

-Using medicines with side-effect of decreased libido

-Surgery (hysterectomy)

-Vaginal dryness

-Diabetes and other chronic diseases

-Heart disorders

-Anemia

Emotional reasons usually include this:

-Stresses, depression

-Tiredness

-Changes self-appraisal due to weight problems and other visual changes

-Age concerns

-Conflicts

-Feel of anxiety and other psychological disorders

Relational reasons touch the following spheres:
-Conflicts with sexual partner

-The changes in intimate relationship

-Partings

-Changes in social status

-Other life changes

-Lack of communication with partner

-Changing the sexual partner or divorcing

-As a rule a combination of these causes may lead to loss of libido and problems in sexual sphere.

Therapy for Fighting The Loss of Libido
There is variety of available approaches for loss of libido treatment. Usually the choice of remedies is made according to the cause of the problem. If it is a psychological problem, you should take care of your emotions and try to normalize your state by relaxation practice, psychologist consultations, changing the lifestyle.

Correct your diet to exclude possible food impact on your libido, orient your ration to soy products, protein-comprising foods, magnesium sources like leafy greens, buckwheat etc. Also it will be useful to include liver, oysters, red meat and other products that contain zync.
Physical activity is also helpful for both physical and emotional causes of loss of libido. It is recommended to use aerobics, yoga practices, Kegel exercises to maintain your vaginal tone. Stretching is also helpful for improving body shape and tone.

Most of menopausal problems of loss of libido is directly connected with hormone changes that should be removed by using natural herbs that will help to adjust endocrine system to a normal state. The hormone problems can be solved by other therapies like chemical drugs or surgery, if they become too severe and don’t react on homeopathic treatment.

Breast pain and tenderness is a usual symptom that accompanies menopause period. It is caused by instable balance of hormones, such as estrogen and progesterone. Breast pain can be experienced by women after menopause, but it is more common for women of pre- and perimenopausal periods.

Breast pain is very popular symptom among women of almost all ages. Statistic shows that about 70% of women experience pain in breast during the life time. 10% of women feel severe pains in breast that bring much discomfort in everyday life, relationships and professional activities.

The only way to prevent yourself from painful symptoms during menopause is to study the problem and understand its nature. This article is aimed to help women that struggle from breast pain.

Breast Pain in Details
Breast pain has many scientific names, like mammalgia, mazodynia or mastalgia. All these terms mean the same – increased breast tenderness, pains in breasts of different strength and discomfort due to abnormal feelings in mammary glands.

Breast pains can be cyclical (regular) or acyclic. The first type of pains is usually caused by hormonal changes, it is typical for women during menopause or before it. Acyclic breast pain has nothing with hormonal misbalance, and it is more common for postmenopausal period. Besides two aforementioned breast pain types there is a third kind of breast discomfort – extramammary pain that occurs outside the breast.

The breast pain display is different among women, it depends on individual characteristics of each woman. As a rule, breast pain symptoms include increased tenderness, painful feelings in the breasts area (one or both), swelling, and the feel of burning. Sometimes it is accompanied with breasts hardening.

What is the reason of Breast Pain?
The most widespread reason of breast pains is age-related hormonal changes during menopause. Such stages as pregnancy, menstruation and menopause cause the changes of estrogen and progesterone hormones level that influence on female organism causing various disorders. The result of such changes is breast pain.

Hormones are not the only reason for breast discomfort. Other less common reasons also can take place.

These are:

-Breast tumors and cyst

-Past breast surgeries

-Various traumas

-Emotional instability and stresses

-Breast size

-Birth control pills intake

-Mastitis

-Various medicines like antidepressants, hormone replacement therapy and heart medicines.

-Alcohol and drugs

Potential Diagnosis for Breast Pain
Breast pain is a symptom that should be discussed with a doctor, because it can be caused not only by menopause, which is the most common reason. Also it may be a symptom of other disorders, in rare cases it can indicate a cancer. To eliminate these potential diagnoses, consult a doctor. He also will help to find helpful treatment to relief pains and breast tenderness.

Sometimes it is impossible to set an exact diagnosis without additional tests available only at clinic. The detailed diagnostics gives the best changes for correct diagnosis and treatment. Sometimes a doctor can prescribe medications after a common physical examination and a few questions. Anyway, don’t use self-treatment, it is better to consult a professional.

Breast Pain Therapy
Currently a wide range of natural therapies are available for treating breast pains during menopausal period. Natural medicines are good for having no side effects, while some measures like diets or physical exercises, relaxation practices can significantly improve menopausal course.

The measures described above can significantly relief pains but they don’t remove the cause of brain pains, like hormonal imbalance. Natural therapies may help in this, by normalizing the level of hormones in female organism. They are safe and reliable methods of treatment that combined with self-care measures can bring successful results in fighting menopausal breast pains.

Most of medics recommend first try all these measures and only if they don’t bring expected pain relief, a patient can use chemical medications for stronger effect. Don’t use chemicals before trying natural therapy, as it is rather risky way of treatment that should be used only when there is no alternative.

For more effective results, you should change your lifestyle properly, start doing exercises, aerobics, and make some diet changes. All this is very helpful in combination with herbals and other therapies. Ask your doctor what is the most useful in your case.

When a woman is close to 45-46 years old, her life begins to acquire previously unknown nuances. Although menstruation do not give a failure, and doctors even recommend the use of contraceptive drugs for contraception. In the reproductive system of female body gradually develops involution processes, at the result of which reduce the synthesis of sex hormones in the ovaries. Exact at this period a woman enters a time of menopause.

Menopause literally means “the complete cessation of menstruation”, however, gynecologists denote this condition by a fairly long period during which there occur various changes relating to cessation of ovarian function.

Conditionally menopause is divided into three phases:

pre-menopausal – the start time reduction of ovarian function before menopause

perimenopause – extends the period of pre-and postmenopausal, including a year after menopause

postmenopausal – life time after menopause to the old ages.

In other words, while menopause, the woman reproductive period becomes unproductive, i.e., gradually the woman loses ability to conceive and birth a child.

Quite often, with the beginning of premenopausal marked changes in the functional status of many organs and systems. Ovulation occurs less frequently, the development of progesterone slows down, and consequently, the duration of menstrual cycles varies considerably. A similar phenomenon during menopause can last for several months or several years.

In general, the processes occurring in women during menopause, on the one hand, typical, and on the other – are individual in nature. The organism can individually respond to those or other changes in hormonal background – for example, someone will has a tendency to weight gain, and others, however, noticeably lose weight, and such manifestations of menopause set. They deliver a lot of unpleasant moments for women…but, however, we are strong goddesses, and we will be able to live out this moment!

P.s. Here are some early signs of menopause. Have you noticed some of them?

1. Changes in mood
2. Depression
3. Chronic fatigue
4. Headaches
5. Changing the monthly cycle
7. Change the hair on the body
8. Pain, cramping,
9. Fluctuations in blood sugar levels
10. Water retention
11. Night sweats
12. Sleep disorders
13. Increased premenstrual syndrome
14. Loss of interest in sexual activities
15. Reduced vaginal mucosa

If you feel something unusual in your organism, please, consult the gynecologist.

Menopause is a state of female organism when the menstruation cycle stops, it is a natural finish of childbearing age. The perimenopause is a pre-menopause period, during which your body meets the hormonal changes with various symptoms, individual at any separate case. The level of estrogen, as well as other hormones drops and this is attended by different reactions of the organism. Here is the list of possible menopause symptoms, some of them are common for almost all women, and some are unusual and rare.

Typical Symptoms of Menopause

Irregular Menstrual Cycle
As a rule, changing of the cycle length is the first sign of coming menopause. The cycle may differ from time to time from longer to shorter periods between menstruations.

Night Perspiring & Heat
The night sweats when you feel like in fever for a short periods of time are also typical for pre-menopause period. As a rule these flashes of heat are attended by high sweating. This symptom is experienced by 75% of women.

Frequent Mood Changes
Due to the decrease of estrogene and progesterone production during the perimenopause lots of women characterize their mood state as “highly emotional”. The periods of extreme nervousness are changed by constant sadness or even anxiety. The positive emotions like delight and happiness are also present, but in minority comparing with negative ones.

Headaches
During the menopause there can be frequent migraine attacks and headaches. The hormonal changes may reflect on vascular system, and these changes causes frequent headaches that can be difficult to overcome.

Insomnia
As we already told, menopause coming is accompanied with night sweats and raised emotional excitability. Both of these symptoms may cause another one – difficulties with falling asleep. Lots of women experience insomnia during menopause, frequent awakenings with no ability to fall asleep again.

Vaginal & Uretra Dryness
The estrogene hormone is responsible for the normal moisturing of vagina, as well as urinary tracts. As its production reduces, women may experience problems with raised dryness that cause discomfort and problems with urination.

Weight Changes
The menopause is accomplied with the slowdown of metabolism. The nutrients you intake may not assimilate completely in the organism. That is why it is a high probability of weight gain. Sport and dieting will help to prevent this.

Memory Changes
The changes of memory interfering the everyday activity is also a sign of menopause. Partial loss of memory like forgetting necessary words or some dates are quite normal within the age, but if you feel that this affects you very often and became much more frequent, it is a time to visit a doctor.

Tiredness
The menopause period is rather difficult in terms of vitality. Many women feel constant tiredness even when doing less than usually. It is a temporary side effect of estrogen lowering. If you feel constant tiredness during the long period (more than 2 month), you need to see a doctor to find out the nature of this state.

Decreased Sexual Activity
When coming to menopause many women feel less desires of having sex due to various reasons. Sometimes it is caused by hormonal disbalance, another problem is depressive state or stresses. If your sexual activity is constantly lessening or you don’t feel satisfaction during the sex and this is a problem for your relationship, consult a doctor. He may help you with this.

Harmful Symptoms of Menopause

You should consult a doctor if some of the following symptoms appeared:

Heavy or Frequent Bleeding
If during the periods you feel much heavier bleeding than usual, like changing tampons or pads more than once an hour during eight hours, such bleeding can be dangerous for your health and needs medical assistance. Its reason can be various tumors, uterine diseases and even cancer. It needs urgent medical aid.

High Blood Pressure
The blood pressure needs to be checked regularly. And if your pressure becomes more than 140/80, it causes numerous risks for heart and vascular system. This is medical problem that required qualified diagnostics and therapy.

Heart Palpitations
Irregular heartbeat can be a common symptom of menopause. But if it causes discomfort and bad feeling for you with anxiety and pain in chest, it requires doctor’s assistance. Perhaps it is not only the menopause symptoms, but the signs of heart attack or other health disorders. Anyway, it needs qualified look.

Depression
Feeling hopeless, sad and anxious for a prolonged period of time can be the signs of clinical depression. You do not need to suffer from it, as it is dangerous for your health. You should see a doctor and take appropriate treatment. The depression displays in different ways, individual for each case. But the general symptom is that you do not satisfied with your way of living, and this needs to be fixed up not to turn into psychosis.

Unusual Menopause Symptoms
Sometimes menopause causes very unusual things in your organism that can’t be defined as its direct symptoms. But the fact is that women react in different ways and hormonal problems can have unexpected side effects, including the following:

• Low blood pressure
• giddiness
• Tinnitus (Ringing of the ears)
• Asthma
• Muscles and Joints pains
• Nightmares
• Digestion problems
• Rapid hair fall
• Heartburn in mouth
• Offensive breath odor
• Body odor changes
• Various neurological symptoms like cramps or creepy gooseflesh, itching, raised skin, breasts sensivity, etc.

If you have some of the symptoms described above, consult a medic to define whether it is a menopause symptom or it has another nature.