Intermediate & Atrophic Menopause

Menopause is officially confirmed one year after a woman's final menstrual cycle and signifies an end to periods and pregnancies. In the United States, women's average age at the time of this "change of life" is 51, according to research available as of 2010. While menopause is a natural process, and not an illness, it's connected to a long list of complications. Two to three years after the initial onset of menopause, women enter intermediate menopause and are susceptible to both short-term and intermediate-term symptoms. Particularly uncomfortable intermediate onset symptoms of menopause are atrophies or the wasting away of tissues in the genital area.

Vaginal Atrophy

• Vaginal atrophy is the gradual thinning and inflammation of vaginal walls and is marked by symptoms of vaginal discharge, dryness, burning, itching, and irritation as well as pain and bleeding after intercourse for some women. This thinning and inflammation is caused by declining estrogen levels. More than 75 percent of postmenopausal women experience genital atrophy and 1 in 15 women stop having sex because of the resulting vaginal pain. Treatments available range from systemic hormone therapy to locally administered topical hormone products.

Osteopenia

• Osteopenia, or low-bone density, is an intermediate onset problem for postmenopausal women. On a yearly basis, women can lose 4 to 5 percent of their bone density which makes them more susceptible to broken bones. Because estrogen helps to protect bones, the decrease in estrogen that women experience after menopause puts women at greater risk for bone-density loss after menopause. Doses of 400 to 800 IU of vitamin D and 1,500 mg of calcium are recommended daily for treatment and prevention of osteopenia and osteoporosis in women not currently undergoing hormone therapy. If osteopenia isn't controlled, it can lead to osteoporosis.

Hot Flashes

• A widely recognized symptom of menopause, hot flashes, also sometimes referred to as hot flushes, are extremely common throughout menopause and postmenopause. Most women describe them as intense heat accompanied by sweating beginning in the chest and continuing up to the neck and face area. Night sweats are hot flashes that happen at night and wake up women, leaving them emotionally and physically drained from lack of sleep.

Urinary Problems

• During intermediate menopause, many women have bladder symptoms such as stress and urge incontinence, and problems with over-frequent urination, urgency and nocturia, or night time urination, all of which have been linked to decreases in some hormone levels after menopause. Hormone therapy has been shown to help with nocturia and urgency, while stress incontinence doesn't seem to improve with treatment.

Psychological and Sexual Problems

• Many women report a decrease in sexual desire and response and difficulty in obtaining organism. These symptoms can affect the occurrence of sexual intercourse between a woman and her partner and could be potentially damaging to her relationship and her psychological and emotional health. One of the causes behind this decrease is the lack of oestrogen and vaginal atrophy. Psychologically, menopause can also be difficult for women because it marks a definitive moment when they have to admit to themselves that they are aging and must adapt to a new body image. In addition to this overarching theme, many women experience panic attacks, problems with their memory, an inability to concentrate, mood swings, anxiety, depression and fatigue during intermediate menopause. Psychological counseling is recommended for women having trouble adjusting to their new, postmenopause body image. Psychosexual counseling is advised for couples experiencing sexual problems.