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Menarche
Menarche refers to a woman’s first menstrual period and
signals the beginning of her reproductive life. At regular
intervals, rising and falling hormone levels encourage the
body to release an egg, ready the lining of the uterus for
pregnancy, and shed the uterine lining if no pregnancy occurs.
Menstruation or menses is the final phase of this monthly
three-phase process.
It is particularly important to note that during Menstruation,
women experience irritability and depressed feelings
( sadness/crying),frequently heavy bleeding, migraines and
experience low energy, caused by change in hormonal levels.
Anaemia, is very common, because of iron loss during their
periods.
Menopause
More than 40 million women are Menopausal in America. Very
uncomfortable symptoms include, among others, Mood swings, hot
flashes, and anxiety.
Menopause is the normal biological event in a woman’s
reproductive cycle marking the end of her natural childbearing
years. Many people think of Menopause as the long process of
hormonal changes that occurs as a woman’s body ages.
Medically, the term refers to one specific date- a woman’s
last menstrual period.
The median age of natural Menopause in the United States is 51
years, and the majority of women will enter menopause sometime
between ages of 40 and 55 years. Menopause before 40 is called
premature menopause and occurs in less than 1 percent of
women. ( Endocrinology Society, 2001).
At the turn of the 20th century, the average life expectancy
of females in the United States was 48 years. ( American
Medical Association, 1997). Menopause and its effect on
women’s health were not major issues, because the average age
at menopause and the average age of death were the same.
Today, the life expectancy of women is 79.7 and most women
live from one-third to one-half of their lives in
postmenopause ( North American Menopause Society, 1997).
The loss of estrogen’s protective qualities after menopause
dramatically increases a woman’s long term risk for two
serious health problems-coronary heart disease ( CHD) and
osteoporosis.
Menarche, Pregnancy, Menopause and Risk of Obesity
Recent studies identified three specific high risks periods
during a woman’s life that potentially can increase weight
gain and the risk of future obesity ( North American
Association for the Study of Obesity, 2000). They include
puberty, especially early menarche, after pregnancy, and after
menopause. A study by researches at Tufts University School of
Medicine in Boston suggests that early menarche may be linked
to obesity in later life. Because obesity is recognized as a
key risk factor for heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, and
cancer in women, these studies are especially significant.
During the last 20 years, obesity prevalence has nearly
doubled among American women ( North American Association for
the Study of Obesity, 2000).
Reference: Written with permission from the State of
Connecticut-Department of Public Health- Nov. 2003.
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