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Defining Perimenopause: Are You in the Thick of It?

Perimenopause is a nice long word for being in menopause transition. It is a period of time when a cycle that starts in a woman’s life several years prior to the actual menopause. The ovaries of a woman start to produce less and less estrogen and the woman slowly moves towards the stage when she is not able to reproduce anymore. This transition generally starts somewhere after a woman turns 40, but can already start in her 30s. This phase called Perimenopause, lasts all the way up to menopause, which is the point in time when no more eggs are released. In the last couple years of menopause the production of estrogen decreases very rapidly. In these last few years of Perimenopause women already experience some of the menopause symptoms.

The length of Perimenopause actually differs from woman to woman. For the average women it is around four years while some women only have it for a few months and others up to 10 years. The official end of Perimenopause is actually one year after the start of menopause was detected, the point in time when a woman has gone 12 months in a row without a period.

Perimenopause comes with many symptoms that are also connected to menopause such as hot flashes, breast tenderness, worsening of premenstrual syndrome, decreased libido (sex drive), fatigue, irregular periods, Vaginal dryness; discomfort during sex, urine leakage when coughing or sneezing, urinary urgency (when you frequently have to go), mood swings, diffuculty sleeping.

If you are experienceing any of these symptoms and you are in you 40s, a doctor can make a diagnosis based on your symptoms, as well as with a blood test. Blood tests will check for the homrone levels but are difficult to detect sicne homrones levels fluctuate greatly during perimenopause. Sometimes it is necessary to take several tests at several different points in time.

One very important point to know for women is that you can still get pregnant during Perimenopause. Fertility declines during this stage in life, but the possibility still stands to become pregnant. Therefore, if pregnancy is not desired, contraceptives of one or another sort are still recommended till a full twelve months worth of no periods has been reached. If you should want to get pregnant, you also need to know that it an be difficult to get pregnant during your late 30s and early 40s and fertility and hormone treatment can help you during this stage.

Symptoms going along with Perimenopause can be bothersome and there are a few ways that you can make yourself feel better. On the medical side oral or other hormonal contraceptives have proven to be an effective treatment against hot flashes and a few other symptoms. But not every woman can take hormonal contraceptives and this issue should be discussed with your physician.

If you cannot or do not want to take hormonal contraceptives, there are also other possibilities. First of all it is recommended to have a healthy life style. The earlier in your life you start and keep up a healthy lifestyle, the more fit and better you will feel when you get older. Regular exercise throughout life is proven to improve any of the symptoms that go along with old age and such stages as menopause and Perimenopause. Should you smoke, stop smoking and reduce the amount of alcohol intake. Being on a regular sleep schedule and getting enough sleep are two important points on your list of remedies. A healthy diet and an additional multivitamin supplement and a good amount of calcium a day, as well as approximately eight glasses of water a day can reduce the perimenopausal symptoms, too.