MUSINGS OF A MENOPAUSAL WOMAN

I was chatting with a gynaecologist and she told me that the most neglected aspect of a woman is her health and how extra careful women ought to be, especially during menopause, but they never consult unless a calamity happens.

- NAMRATA KOHLI

I was chatting with a gynaecologist and she told me that the most neglected aspect of a woman is her health and how extra careful women ought to be, especially during menopause, but they never consult unless a calamity happens. I told her that as a woman in my forties, I plead guilty of the same crime until there is a storm (read health-tsunami of sorts). But I looked at this opportunity to explore more on this intriguing subject plus educate others and myself.

But first what's not menopause. "Don't confuse heavy bleeding with menopause or a 15-20 day cycle ever with menopause," Delhi-based gynaecologist Dr Sunita Nagpal tells me. "In fact, quite to the contrary, the number of days of the cycle tends to decrease and the gap between the two cycles tends to increase during menopause. But when there is excessive bleeding, there could be certain underlying pathology that needs to be investigated."

So what is menopause exactly? Like our skin ages and has wrinkles, our hair ages and has greying; likewise our ovaries tend to age and end up producing lesser hormone, and that is perimenopause - the first stage of menopause. To put it medically, menopause is defined as the point when a woman has not had a menstrual period for 12 consecutive months, and it is typically accompanied by a decline in the production of reproductive hormones, primarily estrogen and progesterone. It usually occurs between the ages of 45 and 55, with the average age being around 51 years.