Managing Menopause with a Healthy Diet
Make ''The Change'' a Healthy One!
-- By Becky Hand, Licensed & Registered Dietitian and Rebecca Pratt, Staff Writer
Some women mourn it as the end of youth and fertility. Others welcome it as a time of freedom and new opportunities. Either way, menopause is a universal rite of passage for women, marking significant physical and emotional changes which can require some adjustment. Technically speaking, menopause refers to the time when a woman ceases menstruating (considered permanent after 12 months), but typically the term to refers to the ongoing and gradual process of reproductive aging, which also includes both perimenopause and postmenopause.
For most women, the process of menopause begins silently somewhere around age 40, when declining levels of estrogen and progesterone may cause menstruation to be less regular. The process also leads to other physical changes, such as reduced likelihood of pregnancy, onset of those proverbial “hot flashes,” and possible thinning of bones which could lead to osteoporosis. As with adolescence, menopause involves yo-yoing hormones and is different for every woman. For most it occurs between the ages of 40 and 58 (51.4 on average). A few women reach menopause in their thirties (before 40 it’s called premature menopause; it can be induced surgically or by drug treatment), and a smaller number don't reach menopause until they’re 60. The most likely predictor of how you’ll experience menopause is how your mother or grandmother fared.
